“Behind the beautiful forevers” by Katherine boo.
“Behind the beautiful forevers” by Katherine boo. To write Non-fiction with a flair of fiction is a literary art that few writers possess, and very few books exhibit. I am not talking about historical fiction – a genre that has great many exponents- which help us relive an era or a life with period prose and reasonable factual accuracy; but rather, to write accurately about current state of affairs as a journalist would; and be able to weave the message into a spectacular story told with great sympathy, lucid prose, deep understanding and a rare insight into the underbelly of India - is something that is quite extraordinary. It is in this context that I rate Katherine Boo’s “Behind the beautiful forever’s” as one of the finest books to be written in modern times about glaring inequalities in contemporary India- its moral putrescence and tragic apathy. The author picks a mundane real-life incident in an urban slum in Mumbai and weaves a frank tale of reality; a happening that otherwis