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

Boo, Katherine

ISBN 10: 1400067553 / ISBN 13: 9781400067558

Published by Random House, 2012

About this Item

Inscribed/signed by Katherine Boo to Twin Cities filmmaker and raconteur, Al Milgrom, on title page; later printing of 2012 first edition. Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; boards and text also very good. Unclipped dust jacket arrives wrapped in protective mylar. National Book Award winner. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Seller Inventory # 289584

Bibliographic Details

Title: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, ...

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: 2012

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Signed: Signed by Author

About this title

Synopsis:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY - A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY

"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: 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

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: 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

About the Author:

Katherine Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Her reporting has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur "Genius" grant, and a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. For the last decade, she has divided her time between the United States and India. This is her first book.