This book is Dickens' equal opposite effort to A Christmas Carol. It is a story revolving around New Years, in which a simple poor old man named Trotty who is accosted by various wealthy Scrooge types who each condemn the poor for their vices and deprivations. Dispirited, he continues to eagerly show kindness to his fellow man and ends the last day of the old year by being spirited away by the bells of the church tower, experiencing a series of visions in which all the worst scenarios of deprivation and poverty take place in the lives of those he loves.

This book provides an incredibly well-fleshed out perspective on poverty and social class issues. Trotty receives all sorts of unwarranted and unasked for advice about what's wrong with the poor and how they could all fix themselves if they only tried. Trotty himself suffers from no illusions about the residual brokenness and pain caused by humanity, but his dark visions of a terrible future where all that he was told comes true only serves to prove that the relationships between us, which are often times more readily available where wealth is lacking, are the greatest social force for beauty and love in the places of generational brokenness.

A less emotionally lifting but far more socially complex alternative companion to A Christmas Carol.