Behind the Lovely Forevers: Life, Dying, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

“A tour de power of social justice reportage and a literary masterpiece.”—Judges, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award 

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Instances • The Washington Put up • O: The Oprah Journal • USA At the moment • New York • The Miami Herald • San Francisco Chronicle • Newsday

On this breathtaking guide by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of worldwide change and inequality is made human by the dramatic story of households striving towards a greater life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement within the shadow of luxurious inns close to the Mumbai airport.

As India begins to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electrical with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune past counting” within the recyclable rubbish that richer individuals throw away. In the meantime Asha, a lady of formidable ambition, has recognized a shadier path to the center class. With somewhat luck, her lovely daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything woman,” may turn into its first feminine school graduate. And even the poorest youngsters, just like the younger thief Kalu, really feel themselves inching nearer to their desires. However then Abdul is falsely accused in a stunning tragedy; terror and world recession rock town; and suppressed tensions over faith, caste, intercourse, energy, and financial envy flip brutal. 

With intelligence, humor, and deep perception into what connects individuals to at least one one other in an period of tumultuous change, Behind the Lovely Forevers, primarily based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of many twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of households inconceivable to neglect. 

WINNER OF: The PEN Nonfiction Award • The Los Angeles Instances E book Prize • The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award • The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein E book Award

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • Folks • Leisure Weekly • The Wall Road Journal • The Boston Globe • The Economist • Monetary Instances • Overseas Coverage • The Seattle Instances • The Nation • St. Louis Put up-Dispatch • The Denver Put up • Minneapolis Star Tribune • The Week • Kansas Metropolis Star • Slate •  Publishers Weekly