Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.96 (592 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 081297932X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-07-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
--Neal Thompson. And we’re like the s**t in between.” A New Yorker writer and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur “Genius” grant, Boo’s writing is superb and the depth and courage of her reporting from this hidden world is astonishing. From within this “sumpy plug of slum” Boo unearths stories both tragic and poignant--about residents’ efforts to raise families, earn a living, or simply survive. At times, it’s hard to believe this is nonfiction. Best Books of the Month, February 2012: Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai’s International Airport. These unforgettable characters all nurture far-fetched dreams of a better life. As one boy tells his brother: “Everything around us is roses
As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. 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. In this brilliant, 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. 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 en
A fantastic achievement of narrative, immersed reporting Nathan Webster "Embedded journalism" is often applied only to military journalists, but it's not a new style at all. Author Katherine Boo basically embedded herself in this slum of Mumbai, India, so readers could see, hear, and - to a degree - understand the lives of the residents. Her 'characters' face daily lives that I don't think an American could deal with for five minutes.The book succeeds because it lacks sympathy - which is a good thing. The girls, boys, men, women are f. I'm an American and I've lived and worked in West I'm an American and I've lived and worked in West Africa for over 5 years (3 of them as a Peace Corps volunteer). I've found that it's incredibly challenging to peal away the cultural onion, especially in writing. It took me three years before I felt that I had a grasp on the rhythm and flow of the community I was living in, including the styles of communication (nonverbal communication, decoding indirectness), the practice of saving face, concepts of time, concep. Very Informative and Enlightening Ross I am always hesitant to read books that cover topics like this. My assumption is that the author will be pushing an agenda or belief system and I will subesquently be turned off by it even if I agree with it. I did not get that impression from Katherine Boo, though. I was pleasantly surprised and appreciative of her work.My wife and I recently adopted a young girl from Navi Mumbai and this book gave me more perspective on how drastically different her life would b