At The Edge Of The Haight

 Katherine Seligman wrote At The Edge Of the Haight, a fiction novel about a 20 year old woman named Maddy Donaldo. Maddy is homeless. She lives with her friends in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with her dog, a pit-bull mix, named Root. The story of how Maddy became homeless is a sad one. One day Maddy's dog gets ahead of her and goes into some bushes in the park. Maddy follows her dog and sees a young man taking the last breaths of his life. Above him stands a menacing older man with blood on his face. He tells Maddy to go away or he will come and find her. Later the victim's parents and the police want to talk to Maddy about what she saw. The victim's parents reach out to Maddy. They try to get her to call her parents. They assume, because their son was homeless, that she has parents who would be delighted to get her call. I can't imagine being homeless, being outside all night in the rain or the fog. I can't imagine living in dirty clothes. I can't imagine going to soup kitchens for food or going hungry. The victim's parents want to adopt Maddy. Since it's too late to help their son, they want to give her money and food and a phone and a place to live. Maddy has her pride. The struggles of the homeless was brought vividly to life in this book.