Behind the beautiful forevers : life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity / Katherine Boo.
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first centurys great, unequal cities. 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 daughterAnnawadis “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 Annawadi.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781400067558 (hardcover) :
- ISBN: 9780812979329 (trade pbk.) :
- Physical Description: xxii, 256 p. ; 25 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, c2012.
Content descriptions
Formatted Contents Note: | Prologue: between roses -- Annawadi -- Asha -- Sunil -- Manju -- Ghost house -- The hole she called a window -- The come-apart -- The master -- Marquee effect -- Parrots, caught and sold -- Proper sleep -- Nine nights of dance -- Something shining -- The trial -- Ice -- Black and white -- A school, a hospital, a cricket field. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Poverty > India > Bombay. Urban poor > India > Bombay. Social classes > India > Bombay. Bombay (India) > Economic conditions > 21st century. Bombay (India) > Social conditions > 21st century. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Selkirk College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
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Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Circulation Modifier | Holdable? | Status | Due Date | Courses |
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Castlegar Campus Library | HV 4140 M86 B66 2011 (Text)
Copy: c. 1
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B001327220 | General | Volume hold | Available | - |