Join co-hosts Anne Moore and Chris Stacey for an innovative, exciting, and passionate approach to world literature. We select a country and pick three books over the course of three months: one contemporary, one non-fiction, and one classic. Our current country is India. In our second meeting we discuss the non-fiction selection Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. 256 pages.

We hope to see you in March to help us create a community you’ll find inviting, fun, engaging and a place to sustain meaningful friendships.

Date: Thursday, March 6, 2025

Time: 6:00PM Central

Location: Fine Arts Building, 410 South Michigan Avenue, Salon Des Artistes, Room 535, Chicago, IL 60605

Cost: $10 suggested donation.

Reviews

Kirkus

New York Times