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What Members Thought
It's impressive how much work the author must have done to collect all the information and interviews needed for this book so that it is told as a cohesive tale. The narrator (an outsider) had to become fully immersed in a complex society where outsiders are easily discounted and/or distrusted. This book offers valuable insight into the lengths people will go to survive and thrive in any environment, and the many loopholes and opportunities for corruption that both help and hinder the extremely
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I've read several Pulitzer-winning works of fiction recently and have been supremely underwhelmed. Maybe they just do a better job of selecting non-fiction winners. This book was a very powerful and heartbreaking account of what life is like for residents of a slum in Mumbai, in the shadow of wealth and opulence (a bustling airport with expensive hotels surrounding it). The relentless poverty and misery experienced by most of the slum residents and the extensive corruption at every level of law
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I don't know how I'd like reading this myself, but listening to the audio book has been very entertaining in an educational informative way.
Update June 2021: This is one of those books that have stuck with me. Some say the author’s retelling is over the top or not-real. The author claims she was there and this is what happened. Either way, it’s one of those books that make you consider extreme poverty and classism as something that is and that can be. And maybe read this: https://niemanstoryboar ...more
Update June 2021: This is one of those books that have stuck with me. Some say the author’s retelling is over the top or not-real. The author claims she was there and this is what happened. Either way, it’s one of those books that make you consider extreme poverty and classism as something that is and that can be. And maybe read this: https://niemanstoryboar ...more
Great story on the lives of a Mumbai slum - it was also incredibly frustrating to watch how quickly a family's life can be destroyed and illustrates how varied lives can be, even living right next door.
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BOOK RIOT READ HARDER CHALLENGE 2018 - fulfills #5: A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa).
Sep 29, 2012
Isabel
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Nov 19, 2012
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Nov 24, 2012
Melissa
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Dec 10, 2012
stephanie
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May 10, 2013
Ann
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Feb 03, 2015
Connie
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Oct 17, 2015
Steve Sarner
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Feb 24, 2016
yana
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Nov 03, 2018
Kevin Dugan
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Nov 12, 2019
Heather
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Mar 02, 2022
Julie
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