Nearly People is a novella set in a post-apocalyptic ghetto where the indigenous population are prevented from leaving and are slowly dying. Carrier, the heroine, struggles to catch enough food to keep herself and her sick partner, Jake, alive. Every day she ventures out into the Core to catch whatever wildlife is too sick or old to run away, all the time risking capture and death at the hands of other residents. One day, however, in the midst of all the disease and depravity she glimpses a strange figure dressed in white, dancing through the streets.

Within Nearly People Conrad Williams paints a grim, dark picture of a young woman's struggle to survive and still maintain some semblance of humanity. The characters are stark and threatening and the world is one of perpetual fear. Nasty, nasty, nasty. There is a wonderful twist in the tale that brings this well written story to an end. I look forward to reading another work by Conrad Williams.