Bibliograph

Behind the beautiful forevers, life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity, Katherine Boo

Type

Label

Behind the beautiful forevers, life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity, Katherine Boo

Language

eng

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Behind the beautiful forevers

Oclc number

824567732

Responsibility statement

Katherine Boo

resource.studyProgramName

Accelerated Reader, UG, 7.8, 14, 14, 156642

Sub title

life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity

Summary

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter, Annawadi's "most-everything girl," will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call "the full enjoy." But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of AnnawadiBased on three years of reporting, this book examines and provides real-life accounts of the daily life and struggles of poor, urban families living in Bombay, India. The text contains profanity, graphic violence, and language of racial discrimination

Table Of Contents

Prologue. Between roses -- Undercitizens. Annawadi ; Asha ; Sunil ; Manju -- The business of burning. Ghost house ; A hole she called a window ; The come-apart ; The master -- A little wildness. Marquee effect ; Parrots, caught and sold ; Proper sleep -- Up and out. Nine nights of dance ; Something shining ; The trial ; Ice ; Black and white ; A school, a hospital, a cricket field

Target audience

adult

Classification