Rich and Poor

Finalist for the 2016 Quebec Writers' Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction

Who hasn’t, at one time or another, considered killing a billionaire? From acclaimed writer Jacob Wren comes a spiralling, fast-paced parable of joyous, overly self-aware, mischievous class warfare.

In this literary page-turner, a classically-trained pianist who has fallen on hard times and now washes dishes to make ends meet, decides to kill a billionaire as a political act. As his plan proceeds and becomes more feasible, the story cuts back and forth between his and the billionaire’s perspectives, gradually revealing how easily the poisons of ambition, wealth, and revolutionary violence can become entangled.

A contemporary and poignant fable that picks up the mantle of the economically disenfranchised, Rich and Poor delves into the psychology of politics in ways that are off-kilter, unexpected, and unnerving.