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

Locations
Call Number: Adult BOCD / Nonfiction / Social Science / Boo, Katherine
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Nonfiction / Social Science / Boo, Katherine	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Compact discs.
Unabridged.
Read by Sunil Malhotra.
Annawadi is a settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are filled with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees ₃a fortune beyond counting₄ in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. But then Abdul 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.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

story submitted by nicenora2371 on July 12, 2013, 5:45pm this story is very good who wrote the story?

ultimately, quite depressing submitted by camelsamba on June 20, 2016, 7:47pm The book, I suppose, is well-written. It certainly tells an important story by shining a light on the reality of "life ... in a Mumbai under city." But it was so depressing. As the author points out, rather than rally against the true enemy (endemic corruption, those a few rungs up the ladder of power, etc) the slum dwellers take out their anger and frustration on each other. In the end, I didn't really like this very much, and that is what is reflected in my 2 stars.

"Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate they improved their lots by beggaring the life chances of other poor people." (p 237)

Note on audiobook: the narrator sounds reasonably authentic (to my ears, having never traveled to India!), which helped draw me into the story. But there are a lot of people in this story, and I had a hard time keeping them straight as I listened, especially the ones outside the Husain family or Asha's family. There might be visual clues in the print edition that would have helped me know when it was jumping around, plus I personally would benefit from seeing the names. I also had a hard time keeping track of the passage of time. But at the same time, I might have given up if I'd been reading the print edition; the fact that I could multi-task may be the only thing that kept me going...