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

Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2012: Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai s International Airport. From within this sumpy plug of slum Boo unearths stories both tragic and poignant--about residents efforts to raise families, earn a living, or simply survive. These unforgettable characters all nurture far-fetched dreams of a better life. As one boy tells his brother: Everything around us is roses. And we re like the s**t in between. A New Yorker writer and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Genius grant, Boo s writing is superb and the depth and courage of her reporting from this hidden world is astonishing. At times, it s hard to believe this is nonfiction. --Neal Thompson