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From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo comes a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the world’s most lively but treacherous cities.
Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of
luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India
starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope:
even the poorest of them believe themselves inching
closer to the good lives and good times they call ‘the
full enjoy’.
But then Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim
teenager, is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror
and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed
tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic
envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes
intersect with the greatest global truths, the true
contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so,
too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of
Annawadi.
With intelligence, humour, and deep insight, Behind the
Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one
of the 21st century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives
of people impossible to forget.
About the Author
KATHERINE BOO, a staff writer
for The New Yorker, has spent the
last 20 years reporting from within
poor communities, considering how
societies distribute opportunity and
how individuals get out of poverty.
Her reporting has been honoured by a
MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ grant,
a National Magazine Award for Feature
Writing, and the Pulitzer Prize for Public
Service. Boo was also an editor of The
Washington Monthly and, for nearly a
decade, a reporter and editor at The
Washington Post. This is her first book.
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Comments about Behind the Beautiful Forevers:
I read this book while traveling around India, and it gives an amazing insight into the lives of people living in the slums surrounding the Mumbai airport. My first point of contact was in Mumbai, so flying in I saw the shacks crammed right up to the edge of the airport fence, with people drying their clothes on the razor wire. This visual really helped me to jump right into the lives of the characters. Bamboozling!
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Comments about Behind the Beautiful Forevers:
Could not put this book down. Read it in one night. Eye-opening read of life in Indian Slum. I cried I laughed. Highly recommended!
Displaying reviews 1-2
‘A riveting, fearlessly reported portrait of a poverty so obliterating that it amounts to a slow-motion genocide. Right now the book is sitting on my shelf making all the other books feel stupid. …’
Entertainment Weekly
‘A jaw-dropping achievement, an instant classic of narrative nonfiction … ’
Elle
‘A shocking — and riveting — portrait of life in modern India. … This is one stunning piece of narrative nonfiction …’
O Magazine
‘A mind-blowing read.’
Redbook
Other Reviews
"Without question the best book yet written on contemporary India. Also, the best work of narrative nonfiction I've read in twenty-five years." - Ramachandra Guha, author of India After Gandhi.
ISBN: 9781921844638
ISBN-10: 1921844639
Audience:
General
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 288
Published: 22nd February 2012
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Dimensions (cm): 21.0 x 13.5
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