Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very well-written book. Although non-fiction, it reads like a story. The author tells about the lives over several years of some of the people in one of the slums around the airport in Mumbai, India. Real names are used and the stories are not pretty. The book pretty much demolishes the romantic notion that poor people help each other and live a good life without money. The people she describes live a miserable life and they know it. Several characters commit suicide by drinking rat poison. The book is so detailed with conversations and thoughts that I have some questions about whether liberties were taken for the sake of the story. The author claims not. Time will tell. If it is a work of fiction, it is still extremely well done.