Katherine Boo

Harvard Book Store 

If your only familiarity with the impoverished slums of Mumbai came from watching 2008’s excellent Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, but your interest was piqued, you’d do well to check out New Yorker staff writer KATHERINE BOO’s debut book Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House). To research her rich — at times achingly beautiful — first book, Boo immersed herself in slum culture, living among the “slumdogs” of whom she writes with painstaking attention to detail. Her time and efforts were well worth the results. You’ll discover as much when Boo discusses the book, which tells the story of one young boy and his day-to-day struggles — and small victories.

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