The first week of February marks National Storytelling Week – this annual event was created by National Literacy Trust to celebrate the power of sharing stories and encourage people to make reading a part of their daily routine.
This year’s theme for NSW is ‘Reimagine your world’, which challenges us to see life from a different perspective. However, the reality of homelessness is something that many of us struggle to imagine, or understand.
For millions of people around the world, homelessness is not just a possibility, it’s a daily struggle. Stories have the power to bridge the gap of understanding and give us insight into experiences beyond our own. That’s why we’ve put together a list of six thought-provoking books that explore homelessness in different forms. These stories, both fiction and non-fiction, offer a glimpse into lives shaped by displacement, challenge us to rethink our assumptions and, perhaps, reimagine a world where no one is left without a place to call home.
Classics
‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ by George Orwell
This unusual fictional memoir – in good part autobiographical – documents Orwell’s ‘first contact with poverty’, living as a penniless writer in two great cities. ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ recounts the writer’s experiences living among the desperately poor and destitute, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses of last resort, and living alongside the homeless.
Exposing a shocking, previously-hidden world to his readers, Orwell gave a human face to the statistics of poverty for the first time – and in doing so, found his voice as a writer.
‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck’s Pulitzer prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family – driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots paints a stirring portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless.
Despite being published in 1939 and centering on a family in pursuit of the American Dream, many of the novels themes still resonate today, all over the world. While The Grapes of Wrath is a tragic tale of exploitation and injustice, it also shows the importance of resilience, community, and standing together in the face of adversity.
Inspirational True Stories
‘A Knock at the Door’ by Rob Parsons
A Knock at the Door is the true story of Ronnie Lockwood, a homeless man who entered the home of Rob and Dianne Parsons and lived as part of their family for over 45 years until his death.
When Rob Parsons, a young lawyer, opens his door one Christmas night, he finds a man standing before him clutching a bag of belongings and a frozen chicken. Rob and his wife, Dianne, invite him into their home, cook his chicken and offer him shelter for the night. What happens next is an astonishing story of human kindness, self-learning, incredible pain, unbelievable hope and the sheer power of love to change a life.
A the heart of this story is a simple message: whether we are a lawyer or a dustman – tomorrow doesn’t always have to be like yesterday.
‘The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless: A True Story of Love and Compassion Amid a Pandemic’ by Christina Lamb
When Covid-19 hit the UK and lockdown was declared, the British government launched a programme called ‘ Everyone In ’, and made measures to move people experiencing homelessness into emergency accommodation, where they could safely isolate from the virus.
This is the story of a luxury hotel in Shrewsbury that welcomed over 100 rough sleepers over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the events that occurred during that time.
Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, Christina Lamb writes of poverty, generosity and worlds colliding in modern Britain.
Factual
‘Tenants’ by Vicky Spratt
Award-winning journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad decisions to show how the British dream of secure housing for all has withered. This fierce and moving account tells the stories of those on the frontline, illuminating the ways this national emergency cuts across the country, where the safety net of social housing has unravelled in exchange for profit, and communities have been devastated beyond recognition.
Everybody deserves the chance of a safe and stable home, and this urgent, ground-breaking book leads the way.
For Children
‘I See You’ by Michael Genhart (Illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff)
I See You is a wordless picture book that depicts a homeless woman who is not seen by everyone around her–except for a little boy. Over the course of a year, the boy is witness to all that she endures. Ultimately, in a gesture of compassion, the boy acknowledges her in an exchange in which he sees her and she experiences being seen.
This book opens the door for children and parents to begin a conversation about homelessness.
