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

by Katherine Boo

But for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remained.

Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another.

The effect of corruption I find most underacknowledged is a contraction not of economic possibility but of our moral universe.