The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick is Tor’s Free eBook for August

It’s that time of month again. The time when Tor gives away a free paid ebook for a few days as part of their eBook of the Month Club.

Tor has been doing this for a couple of years now, and the free books are often pretty good. Oftentimes the freebie is the first book in a series but this month’s book is a stand-alone title.

Tor’s free ebook for August is The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick.

The book is only free for a few days so make sure to grab it before the end of the day on Friday, August 16th.

To get the ebook all you have to do is sign up for Tor’s monthly newsletter over at Tor.com and then you can download it from there.

One nice thing about Tor’s ebooks is they are DRM-free so they’ll easily work with whatever app or device you choose, and their free ebooks are available in both ePub and Mobi formats so you can get whatever works best for you, or both.

If you want to read the book on a Kindle you can sideload it via USB or use a send to Kindle app to wirelessly send the Mobi file to your device.

Here’s the description for the book:

Lémabantunk, the Glorious City, is a place of peace and plenty, of festivals and flowers, bejeweled streets and glittering waterfalls. But it is also a land of severe justice. Darroti, a young merchant, has been accused of an unforgiveable crime – the brutal murder a highborn woman. Now, in keeping with the customs of their world, his entire family must share in his punishment – exile to the unknown world that lies beyond a mysterious gate.

Passing through that gate, and grieving for the life they leave behind, Darroti and his family find themselves in a harsh and hostile land – America just a few years hence, a country under attack in a world torn by hatred and warfare. Unable to explain their origin, they are rapidly remanded to an internment camp in the Nevada desert, along with thousands of other refugees. There they endeavor to make sense of this ill-fated land where strange gods are worshipped, and living things like flowers and insects are not respected.

After Darroti, unable to bear his disgrace, takes his life, the rest of the family escapes to the outside world. There, each tries to cope in their own way. Timbor, the head of the clan, troubled by the restless spirit of his departed son who comes to him in dreams, does his best to preserve the old ways, and avoid conflict with the outsiders. His eldest son Masofo, who calls himself Max, is lured by the worldly temptations of this new world, while his second son, Erolorit, strives to make a decent life for his family.

But it is Timor’s granddaughter, Zamatryna, who is the quickest to adjust to this strange new world. It is she who is the first to learn its language, to adopt its customs, to accept this place as her new home. And, as the strain of adapting themselves to this new life begins to tear the family apart, it is Zama, sustained by the extraordinary love of an ordinary young man, who finds a way to heal their grief and give them new hope.

Tor.com