Keepsakes by Resnick Mike

Mike Resnick currently stands first on the Locus list of all-time award winners, living of dead, for short fiction, and 4th on the all-time list of award winners for all lengths. A wonderful and intense short sci-fi novel. A great plot, with quirky and fascinating characters. A touching story you will not forget."They came like a plague, blown on the galactic winds.No one knew where they came from, no one knew where they were going, no one even knew for sure if they were human. One day they would appear and offer their services, and sometime later they would leave, their coffers filled to overflowing with broken dreams and shattered hopes. Oh, they were paid in currency, lots of it-but what they really traded in was misery.They had many names, some of their own devising, some not. The one that stuck was the Star Gypsies.It was my job to hunt them down. Of course, no one told me what to do when I caught them, because they usually hadn't broken any laws. Hearts, yes; dreams, absolutely. But laws? Not often, if at all."