Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

Beggars in Spain

Nancy Kress

Beggars in Spain is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning complex look at economies and inequalities through a science fiction lens.

Leisha’s father, Roger Camden, bullies the scientists who are pioneering bioengineering, through infiltration of their databases and money, to make his daughter one of the “Sleepless.” His wife is not so enthusiastic but he bullies her into compliance as well.

At roughly the same time the egg is being implanted for Leisha, Mrs. Camden becomes pregnant naturally with Alice. Alice and Leisha are twins, but not remotely alike. Leisha has also been bioengineered to be tall, blond and beautiful. Because she does not sleep, she is able to take advantage of her ability to learn. 

Mrs. Camden loves Alice and abhors Leisha. Roger Camden is cold and manipulative to anyone but Leisha. Eventually he sends Mrs. Camden away and marries the scientist who did the genetic changes for Leisha.

Most people do not like the changes that make babies “Sleepless.” They feel it gives them an unnatural edge in competition. The Sleepless are barred them from many things, like competition in sports or investing. More than that, the “Sleepers” grow to hate the sleepless for being different. Both groups perceive the Sleepless as better.

Some parents don’t think far enough ahead to prepare for having a Sleepless child and when a child doesn’t sleep at night and doesn’t have round the clock nurses, you can guess what happens. Leisha and her friends are party to a couple kidnappings of Sleepless toddlers who are being abused. Unfortunately, one of them is caught and put in jail, where he is murdered by the other inmates, simply because he is a Sleepless.

As things develop, people become more wary, more scared, and angrier at the Sleepless. There’s a whole We-sleep movement trying to grind the Sleepless into the ground or kill them. The few people who are sleepless of Leisha’s generation, recognize the pernicious hatred being sent their way and some of them band together to buy land and create a place called Sanctuary.

Much of the novel deals with economic principles and inequality. Roger Camden is a Yagaist, a follower of Kenzo Yagai. His philosophy, in part, states that “. . . the only dignity, the only spirituality, rests on what a man can achieve with his own efforts. To rob a man of the chance to achieve, and to trade what he achieves with others, is to rob him of his spiritual dignity as a man.”

Leisha finds holes in Yagai’s theories. She finds that trade can be non-linear. “If Stewart gives me something, and I give Stella something, and ten years from now Stella is a different person because of that and gives something to someone else as yet unknown – it’s an ecology. An ecology of trade, yes, each niche needed, even if they’re not contractually bound. Does a horse need a fish? Yes.”

One of the Sleepless tells Leisha of an analogy called the Beggars in Spain, that they will turn on you, rip you apart for what they want if you don’t give it, so you have to cut them off.

But Leisha finds that the whole beggars in Spain analogy falls apart. “Yes, there are beggars in Spain who trade nothing, give nothing, do nothing. But there are more than beggars in Spain. Withdraw from the beggars, you withdraw from the whole damn country. And you withdraw from the possibility of the ecology of help . . . Beggars need to help as well as be helped.”

A fascinating book, and not too heavy handed for the all the heavy topics it deals with. I highly recommend it.