Notes by
hejenemy
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
By Katherine Boo
Abdul had been aiming for a future like the past, but with more money. The rage of a neighbor with less money had played no part in his calculations. He didn't know if his mother was right about an earlier, peaceful age in which poor people had accepted the fates that their respective gods had written on their foreheads, and in turn treated one another more kindly. He just knew that she didn't really long for companionable misery. She'd known abjectness, loathed its recollection, and raised her son for a modern age of ruthless competition. In this age, some people rose, and some people fell. And ever since he was little, she'd made him understand that he had to rise.
An incredible depiction of modern life in a Mumbai slum.
288 pages
Published Apr 7, 2014 by Random House Trade
Social Science - Developing & Emerging Countries
Social Science - Poverty & Homelessness
History - Asia - South - General