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9780812979329
Overview
Overview
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. 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 National Book Award - The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith 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 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
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 - Newsweek/The Daily Beast - Foreign Policy - The Seattle Times - The Nation - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - The Denver Post - Minneapolis Star Tribune - Salon - The Plain Dealer - The Week - Kansas City Star - Slate - Time Out New York - Publishers Weekly
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A book of extraordinary intelligence and] humanity . . . beyond groundbreaking."--Junot D az, The New York Times Book Review
"Reported like Watergate, written like Great Expectations, and handily the best international nonfiction in years."--New York "This book is both a tour de force of social justice reportage and a literary masterpiece."--Judges' Citation for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award " A] landmark book."--The Wall Street Journal
"A triumph of a book."--Amartya Sen "There are books that change the way you feel and see; this is one of them."--Adrian Nicole LeBlanc " A] stunning piece of narrative nonfiction . . . Katherine] Boo's prose is electric."--O: The Oprah Magazine
"Inspiring, and irresistible . . . Boo's extraordinary achievement is twofold. She 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
NAMED 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
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 - Newsweek/The Daily Beast - Foreign Policy - The Seattle Times - The Nation - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - The Denver Post - Minneapolis Star Tribune - Salon - The Plain Dealer - The Week - Kansas City Star - Slate - Time Out New York - Publishers Weekly
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A book of extraordinary intelligence and] humanity . . . beyond groundbreaking."--Junot D az, The New York Times Book Review
"Reported like Watergate, written like Great Expectations, and handily the best international nonfiction in years."--New York "This book is both a tour de force of social justice reportage and a literary masterpiece."--Judges' Citation for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award " A] landmark book."--The Wall Street Journal
"A triumph of a book."--Amartya Sen "There are books that change the way you feel and see; this is one of them."--Adrian Nicole LeBlanc " A] stunning piece of narrative nonfiction . . . Katherine] Boo's prose is electric."--O: The Oprah Magazine
"Inspiring, and irresistible . . . Boo's extraordinary achievement is twofold. She 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
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Boo, Katherine
- ISBN: 9780812979329
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 7.90 x 1.00
- Number Of Pages: 288
- Publication Year: 2014
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School Read Become Favorite Read
Rebecca R. - 6 years 5 months agoI read this book for an English course recently, and it was truly fantastic. Boo does a wonderful job of depicting the conditions of Annawadi, a slum of Mumbai, without glamorizing poverty or dehumanizing the antagonistic characters. This nonfiction transplants you into a society where values differ from those of the U.S. and wealth is of arguably greater significance. Overall, she brilliantly captures a snapshot of this slum, both its beauty and ugliness.
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A fascinating look into the slums in India.
Kristen B. - 7 years 5 months agoTo be quite honest, I do not read a lot of nonfiction. However, after hearing that this book won the National Book Award, as well as earning many more commendations, I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is very readable and not as dry as I was expecting. From the start, Boo presents the readers with the lives of several different people living in slums near the Mumbai airport. The biggest portion of the book is devoted to a family who is unjustly imprisoned after a neighbor accused them of setting her on fire and the court case that comes after. I was completely enthralled with the retelling of both the court case and their time spent in prison. My initial thought while reading was that it can be quite hard to keep up with all the different people the reader is introduced to, but it all comes together and starts to make sense about a third of the way into the book. In the last few pages we get a glimpse of Boo's true thoughts as to what was (and still is) happening with the injustice and poverty in India. I truly wish that she had written further on the subject, as her thoughts were fascinating almost more fascinating than the rest of the book.
HPB Staff Review