Behind the beautiful forevers life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity
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...
| Main Author: | Boo, Katherine. |
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| Format: | Downloads eBook Books eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
Go to Downloadable eBook Here. |
| Summary: |
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 TimesThe Washington PostO: The Oprah MagazineUSA TodayNew YorkThe Miami HeraldSan Francisco ChronicleNewsday NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New YorkerPeopleEntertainment WeeklyThe Wall Street Journal * The Boston GlobeThe EconomistFinancial TimesNewsweek/The Daily BeastForeign PolicyThe Seattle TimesThe NationSt. Louis Post-DispatchThe Denver PostMinneapolis Star TribuneSalonThe Plain DealerThe WeekKansas City Star * Slate * Time Out New York * Publishers Weekly NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A book of extraordinary intelligence [and] humanity . . . beyond groundbreaking." -- Junot Díaz, 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 |
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| Physical Description: |
1 online resource |
| Format: |
Requires OverDrive Read (file size: N/A KB) or Adobe Digital Editions (file size: 2760 KB) or Kobo app or compatible Kobo device (file size: N/A KB) or Amazon Kindle (file size: N/A KB). |
| Audience: |
Text Difficulty 6 UG/Upper grades (9th-12) 7.8 |
| ISBN: |
9780679643951 |
| Author Notes: |
She is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Her reporting from disadvantaged communities has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, and a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. Her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2012), as well as nonfiction prizes from PEN, the Los Angeles Times Book Awards, the New York Public Library, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (Bowker Author Biography) |