Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers
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Narrated by:
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Sunil Malhotra
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Written by:
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Katherine Boo
About this listen
National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2012
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 15-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.
©2012 Katherine Boo (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdCritic Reviews
What listeners say about Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
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- 08-08-21
A true story well told.
Katherine Boo provides a perspective for the questioning mind on ‘what can be done to address the jinx of cycle of poverty in cities and the ever growing slum population. I found it interesting. Having lived in the city and travelled through those slums(you stay in the city: you have to pass through) I can relate to the locales, the court acts and the picture of apathy all prevailing at the hospitals. The incredible greed of those in authority to strip whatever left of the poor is graphically portrayed. With some of my own encounters in my professional experience I can vouch for its possibilities.
The grit shown by some in the slums to dream and the few, either through NGO or as individuals, who try to do good even under such adverse circumstances reflects the true human spirit. I am sure it is found everywhere but it is thriving in India. A good book. Wish I could have listened to the story in the local dialect.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chinnakannan V.
- 05-07-20
heartbreaking and inspiring.
Loved every line of this book. As a documentarian I would use this book as a guide to all my future works. Creative nonfiction is a niche genre and Boo is probably the best at it. I would love to inhabit her mind and her heart to understand how to do this kind of work.
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