Name: Behind the Beautiful Forevers
ISBN: 9781846274503

Katherine Boo

Annawadi is a slum at the edge of Mumbai Airport, in the shadow of shining new luxury hotels. Its residents are garbage recyclers and construction workers, economic migrants, all of them living in the hope that a small part of India's booming future will eventually be theirs. But when a crime rocks the slum community and global recession and terrorism shocks the city, tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy begin to turn brutal. As Boo gets to know those who dwell at Mumbai's margins, she evokes an extraordinarily vivid and vigorous group of individuals flourishing against the odds amid the complications, corruptions and gross inequalities of the new India.

Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

A first book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist profiles everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother of a prospective female college student and a young scrap metal thief, in an account that illuminates how their efforts to build better lives are challenged by regional religious, caste and economic tensions. 35,000 first printing.

Pratik M

Not an easy read especially if you've never been to Bombay. Even for those who've lived there, Annawadi is that familiar place that you refused to know more about. Boo weaves a compelling story from real-life narratives of the people she met.

Timeo Williams

It was a decent book, painting an accurate picture of what is not told through media in some of the largest cities in the world, such as Mumbai.

Govind

Behind the Beautiful Forevers combines the gritty characterization of a Mumbai undercity in the late 2000s with its mix of political, socio-economic and religious contentions - and the spill over... Katherine Boo delivers well researched realities

Paige

Rick Dobrowolski

Shocking and true story of what happens in everyday life at a Mumbai slum. Made me greatly appreciate being born in a first-world country. It also made me feel sorrowful for those who live in such poverty.

Manoj Nayak

This book was an awesome read, just couldn't put it down. The worst fear of any Mumbaikar is to lose his home, or not being able to afford to have a good home and live in a slum because of the high real estate prices. I have this morbid fear too! I often wonder what kind of people live here, what have they done to deserve this kind of fate in life. 

All you need to know about the kind of people living in Mumbai's slum , how and why they land in these slums, what makes them not break out of the poverty? also what are their moralities, what faith shapes up their lives, what are the beliefs and risk they take. 

Katherine Boo is incidentally an expert researcher who has been studying the effect of poverty and its consequences for last 20 years or more. There wouldn't have been a better person writing this book. But it doesn't read like a research article, it is a beautiful but sad story, written with lot of insights.

Helen Ball

i think this is my favorite book! i don’t really feel qualified to say anything more tho. it broke my brain

Nadine 

I got to the end of this book and then was astounded to find out that it's non-fiction! It reads like a novel, with all sorts of nitty gritty detail about life in a slum. The most despondent thing about it was the uncovering of what happens to aid money, micro finance money etc. she has a very good ending as she speaks about how relative wealth creates envy and undermines solidarity.

Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

Melody Izard

I've read a few books of fiction that centered around the people who live in the slums of Mumbai. All have just been heart breaking and it is so difficult to imagine what gives them the will to keep getting up in the morning and repeating a day. But here is a work of nonfiction. And it is worse than I thought.


 Jeanne Jackson may

Jeni Enjaian

The subject matter of this book makes it difficult to call the narrative beautiful yet Boo's writing weaves an intricate mournful dance that one could step back and admire yet feel convicted at the same time. Boo expertly tells the heartrending story of a slum without acting like she's telling a sob story. This book made me reflect on my own privilege, the things I so often take for granted without making me feel like I've gone on a guilt trip.
I highly recommend this book.

Julie Berman

I had to keep reminding myself that this was nonfiction. I highly recommend the audio version.

Heather Killeen

It's impressive how much work the author must have done to collect all the information and interviews needed for this book so that it is told as a cohesive tale. The narrator (an outsider) had to become fully immersed in a complex society where outsiders are easily discounted and/or distrusted. This book offers valuable insight into the lengths people will go to survive and thrive in any environment, and the many loopholes and opportunities for corruption that both help and hinder the extremely impoverished.

Jay Carter

A lesson or a reminder about the continuing causes of poverty -- lack of education, cultural and religious prejudice, corruption, and that old chestnut "no good deed goes unpunished" (if only it were that easy to break down) -- in a beautifully written work.

Caitlin Berger

You know, I'm really getting into reading non-fiction books. This one was so special, though, because it was told through narrative, making it feel like a story. I've been involved and interested in world issues such as poverty, rape, hunger, etc. for many years now, so I really enjoyed this book. 

I felt for the citizens of Annawadi and their trials and tribulations. Katherine Boo's writing was also exquisite and unique. She brought out the stories of these people so well, without sugar-coating or changing their experiences to provide readers with a better read. She told their stories how they were, through narrative. I thought her style was very effective, in that way.

I think this is a great book to read because it sheds a light on the every day lives of undercity dwellers. Especially in India, there is corruption and hopelessness and you feel the need to do something about it, after reading this book.

I definitely recommend reading this, it's a special and important book!

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum

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