Behind the beautiful forevers : [life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity] / Katherine Boo / 256 pgs.

The author, Katherine Boo, spent four years following and interviewing residents of a poor shanty town in Mumbai, India to document and describe their daily life.  The book centers on a tragic event, where a women sets herself on fire, but accuses her neighbors of the crime in hopes of disrupting and destroying their lives.  From there she follows the families involved and their neighbors to unravel the mystery as to what actually happened and what caused the incident.  With each person that is introduced into the narrative, their life history and day-to-day activities are described.  You end up with a very detailed look into the lives of a group of people who are so poor and desperate that they are willing to go to unspeakable extremes, including ingesting rat poison or setting themselves on fire.  She also describes a government and social caste system that is so corrupt that the chances of one of the villagers being able to lift themselves out of poverty is next to none.

A depressing, but important look at living conditions that we (hopefully) will never experience.  I only wish there was more said about how we can help or what needs to be done to change this very intricate and overwhelming problem.