Plot Summary
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity is a stunning work of narrative nonfiction that recounts the sometimes heartbreaking and always dramatic tale of families dreaming of a better life in one of the giant, socially stratified cities of our time.
Based on three years of expert journalism, this quick moving and brilliant book brings to life an era of inequality, and unprecedented global change.
At the foot of the exclusive hotels surrounding the Mumbai airport, sits the ramshackle neighborhood of Annawadi, where the residents are full of hope for their future in a newly prosperous India. An ambitious Muslim teenager, Abdul, sees riches beyond his wildest dreams in the recyclable trash thrown away by the wealthier. Asha has mapped out her path to the middle class through political corruption. If all goes well, her daughter will become the first woman in Annawadi to graduate college. Even Kalu, a teenage scrap metal thief, feels that the good life is within reach.
But soon tragedy strikes Abdul, and the city is shaken by the global financial crisis. Tensions over power, sex, caste, religion and financial envy, suppressed in times of prosperity, are suddenly unleashed. As powerful global realities clash with the most fragile of human dreams, the hope and bravery of the Annawadians is revealed, along with the hardest truths about life in a competitive era.
With Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Katherine Boo, best known for chronicling the struggles of America’s poor, shifts her insightful focus to India, paints a vivid picture of unforgettable people living in a time of violent change.
“totally drawn in by this story and these characters. I have always loved how Katherine Boo explains the underlying economics of poverty and things that seem like “bad judgment” or “bad morals” or “she doesn’t know any better” at first blush become perfectly obvious choices when all is explained and exposed.”
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Kerry (4 out of 5 stars)
Publisher Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE “Inspiring . . . extraordinary . . . [Katherine Boo] shows us how people in the most desperate circumstances can find the resilience to hang on to their humanity. Just as important, she makes us care.”—People “A tour de force of social justice reportage and a literary masterpiece.”—Judges, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • USA Today • New York • The Miami Herald • San Francisco Chronicle • Newsday In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of families impossible to forget. WINNER OF: The PEN Nonfiction Award • The Los Angeles Times Book Prize • The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award • The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • People • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • The Boston Globe • The Economist • Financial Times • Foreign Policy • The Seattle Times • The Nation • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Denver Post • Minneapolis Star Tribune • The Week • Kansas City Star • Slate • Publishers Weekly
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