For those of us privileged Westerners who have grown up insulated from this world of extreme poverty, Katherine Boo has painted an exquisitely endearing and painful portrait of slum life, 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers'. After reading for hours through the middle of nights over the last week, inconceivably, I have come to identify with Abdul and Sunil. At the end I realized this is nonfiction- amazing- read it- you'll see!

I kept reading in hopes it would get better. The story jumps from one family to about a dozen others, there are way too many characters and no real plot. I would definitely not recommend this book to anyone.

A wonderful writer to be able to succinctly express how to live on the underworld of our present society with the understanding that what we do even on a smallest scale of greed and corruption will all hurt all living beings!!!This book help me understand why being very poor has against all odds to survive in the urban jungles...😥

Read one third of this intelligent, informative, book. Felt author should have simplified text. With too many characters, with too much switching between them, it seemed she just lost her way. In saying so much, she said too little. It was easy to loose empathy in the midst of chronic shock. Less characters with more access to their inner lives would have made this a real winner.

Amazing story, worth reading to understand poverty. However the author is at times too descrptive, making the story slow and boring.

In a few words; life enhancing, every American should read her book.

So glad I bought this book. By that I mean, actually paid for it! My $14 seems like a drop in the bucket to the work that went into it. A sometimes poetic and often aching depiction of ordinary people struggling to survive. I loved the concept of trying to be "good" in a society that more often than not, made it very difficult. Beautiful book.

It is sometimes slogging, but mostly not. It is always a picture we want to look at and not look at. The portraits of the children are achingly touching. It is a brilliant portrayal of poverty at its most excruciating. There are so many aspects to this story, especially the contrast that is building between the haves and have nots in the twenty first century. It undeniably touching to the quick.

Outstanding and sobering. This jewel makes one aware of the outside world and its trials. Although one is grateful for OUR world, our society, our values, our judicial system, there is a rage that is ignited against the corruption and injustice portrayed, and an obsession to confront, fight and annihilate them.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit Mumbai on business, not unlike I had done over the decades to about 35 other countries. The depth of the apparent poverty in Mumbai was unlike anything I had ever seen anywhere else. It was hard to believe that I was still on the same planet. This book gave me some insight into and appreciation of what I saw from a distance during my visit there. Thank you. Charles C Berghoff