Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Over three years of reporting, Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo followed families in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement beside the Mumbai airport in the shadow of luxury hotels. As India grows richer, its residents chase their own ways up. Abdul, a Muslim teenager, makes a living from the recyclable garbage that wealthier people throw out. Asha sees political corruption as her route into the middle class and hopes her daughter will be the settlement's first female college graduate, while fifteen year old Kalu steals scrap metal. Then Abdul is falsely accused in a tragedy, and terror and the global recession unsettle the city. David Hare later adapted the book into a play.

It appears on a list of books Barack Obama recommended during his presidency, and Bill Gates called it a reminder of how much work remains to fix global inequities as well as an uplifting account of people striving for their families.