ABANDONED. drifter traveling through US, post 9-11, fiction, near future

[Dawn]

I read this a few years ago.

It's from a liberal perspective showing how bad it could be to mistakenly be put on a terrorist suspect list, and how some of the powers granted by the Patriot Act could be misused so easily.

The guy in the title had ties to terrorism through his family (I think), which he's lost since he was accused of it. I think his child has been put in foster care.

He's traveling through the US, but being really monitored by Homeland Security. I want to think they've got the guy chipped, even. He has to report in via phone constantly, report to local law enforcement, and because of his history, no one ever wants him around.

I think he used to be a respected person, a teacher maybe. Now he does odd jobs.

When he winds up in the town the story takes place in, he gets sort of caught up in being accused of something else that he didn't do.

Any thoughts?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I'm kind of curious.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

I've not read it, but have you looked at _The Traveler_ by John Twelve Hawks? Near future, drifter, but dunno that there's a terrorism tie. And I think he's hiding from gov/corps, not checking in.

Along the ostracism theme, there's also a short story about a computer hacker who got caught in the future. The wiped/conditioned him so that he can't use computers for (a year?), and he has to beg other people to access stuff for him - he can't even pay for anything, since there is no non-digital money - but he's been given a large bank account.
edit: I gave this its own query:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Dawn hasn't commented on this since 2010 so I'm moving this to Abandoned.