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

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity is a non-fiction book written by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo in 2012. It won the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize among many others. It has also been adapted into a play by David Hare in 2014, shown on National Theatre Live in 2015. The book describes a present-day slum of Mumbai, India, named Annawadi, and located near the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. It follows the interconnected lives of several residents, including a young trash picker, a female "slumlord," and a college student. The author is a white American woman who lived in Mumbai with her husband, an Indian who had a job in the city. An excerpt from the book was also used in the AQA IGCSE English Language exam in June 2014

The 830th greatest nonfiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - National Book Award - Nonfiction (National Book Foundation)