Books by Katherine Boo
“A great book to understand the widening differences that you see playing out every day in Mumbai between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the non-privileged, those people who have things like recourse to the law or access to proper schools and hospitals and those who don’t.” Read more...
The best books on Modern Indian History
Dinyar Patel, Historian
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo
An absolutely heartbreaking portrait of what life is like in the slums of Mumbai today
Interviews where books by Katherine Boo were recommended
-
1
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
by Anna Funder -
2
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
3
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo -
4
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
Narrative nonfiction is a style of writing that takes the facts and dramatises them to create novelistic retellings of real life events. Samira Shackle, author of Karachi Vice, a book that offers vivid insight into the lives of five of the city’s residents, recommends five books that have inspired her—and explains how a writer might begin to carve ‘plot’ and ‘characters’ from reams of research material.
The best books on The Trash Trade, recommended by Adam Minter
Recycling is more than just a blue and green bin in your pantry, says journalist Adam Minter – it’s a global trade with centuries of history that stretches from American scrapyards to Chinese e-waste recycling villages
The best books on Why Cities Are Good For You, recommended by Leo Hollis
Half of the world’s population live in cities, and more are moving in. Urbanist Leo Hollis explains how city living makes us smarter and more creative, why slums are set to grow, and what the future of the city holds.
-
1
A Concise History of Modern India
by Barbara Metcalf & Thomas Metcalf -
2
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
by Ramachandra Guha -
3
A Part Apart: The Life and Thought of B. R. Ambedkar
by Ashok Gopal -
4
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum
by Katherine Boo -
5
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
by Suketu Mehta
The best books on Modern Indian History, recommended by Dinyar Patel
The best books on Modern Indian History, recommended by Dinyar Patel
Whether we're thinking about democracy versus authoritarianism, corruption versus good governance, or rich versus poor, there is a lot we can learn from India's recent history, says Dinyar Patel, a historian at SPJIMR in Mumbai. He talks us through some good books on the modern history of a country that has long been the world's largest democracy and is now its most populous country.