Trash

Published in 2010, Andy Mulligan’s dystopian young adult novel Trash examines themes of poverty, homelessness, corruption, and friendship. Set in the near future in an unnamed country, it follows the adventures of three boys who take turns narrating the story: Raphael, Gardo, and Jun-Jun (known as Rat throughout most of the book). The boys are poor, as are the majority of the people in their region. They live, as do most, by picking through trash at a variety of sprawling dumpsites near a city called Behala, hoping to find something they can sell.

Raphael finds a bag in the trash one day. It contains a leather wallet, a map, pictures of a girl in a school uniform, and a key. The wallet has 1,100 pesos, which Gardo and Raphael split. Soon, policemen visit the camp where Raphael stays with his aunt and extended family. They are looking for the bag and its contents and are offering a reward for it. They will pay each family in Behala if it is turned in. As the search grows more aggressive, Raphael and Gardo are increasingly aware that they have found something more important than they suspected. They hide the bag with Rat, who lives in a hole filled with rodents. Raphael knows that the policemen will not look there.

Rat recognizes that the key in the bag is to a locker at the train station. He helps the boys get there and open the locker. Inside is a letter written by a man named José Angelico to another man, Gabriel Olondriz, who is a prisoner in Colva Prison. There is also a slip of paper that has coded strings of numbers printed on it.

A man named Father Juilliard narrates a section of the book and reveals that he has compiled the various accounts from the characters. He runs the Mission School for the Behala children, although it is poorly attended. Father Juilliard recounts that the police intensify their search and even take Raphael in for questioning. He is tortured at the police station, then released after convincing the police that he does not know anything about the bag.

The boys decide to visit Colva Prison to speak with Gabriel Olondriz. Gardo enlists the help of a social worker named Olivia—who works with Father Juilliard at times—by lying and telling her he wants to visit his grandfather in prison. When they meet Olondriz, he reveals that he is in prison because he brought corruption charges against Senator Zapanta, the vice-president of the country. José Angelico was Zapanta’s senior houseboy and managed to steal $6 million from him by smuggling it out in an old refrigerator. José Angelico Jose took the money because Zapanta had stolen it first—from funds earmarked for international aid. The robbery has made Zapanta the subject of great mockery, and the police are desperate to get the money back. Olondriz is excited to hear of the letter from José and says that he can decipher the code if he can get his Bible. A guard named Marco informs them that the visit is over but says he will bring them the Bible later.

In Behala, Marco tells the boys that he will give them the Bible for 20,000 pesos. Rat steals the money from Father Juilliard’s safe at the school, and Gardo makes the exchange in a tea-house. But Marco betrays him, taking the money and trying to turn Gardo over to the police. Gardo fights his way free with the Bible, and the three boys go into hiding. They manage to decipher the code and determine that the location of the money is in a graveyard. On Day of the Dead, they find the grave and also the daughter of José Angelico, Pia Dante, who they thought was dead.

The boys keep some of the money for themselves but scatter the rest over the dumpsite before it opens, returning the stolen money to the people of Behala. They use the money they keep to travel with Pia to the island of Sampalo, which is Rat’s original home. They buy boats and plan to spend the rest of their lives as fishermen.