Author Guide · Narrative Nonfiction
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Annawadi was a makeshift settlement of about three thousand people squeezed beside the international airport in Mumbai, behind a wall covered in advertisements promising tiles that would stay “beautiful forever”. Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American reporter, spent more than three years there, following a teenage scrap trader, a young woman hoping to become the settlement's first female college graduate, and their neighbours. Her book won the National Book Award. This guide covers it and what to read next.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 books · Narrative nonfiction · 2012 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Katherine Boo has published one book: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (2012), which won the National Book Award and became a stage play.
Where to Start with Katherine Boo
Her one book
→ Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012).
The Book by Katherine Boo
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Three years in Annawadi, a settlement beside Mumbai's airport, through Abdul, a teenage trader in rubbish, his family, and their neighbours, as a quarrel spirals into a criminal case. Boo kept herself out of the story and wrote it like a novel.
How Many Books Did Katherine Boo Write?
One book, published in 2012.
- Narrative nonfiction — Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012). Read the entries →
How to Read Katherine Boo
There is only one book.
A reading path
1. Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012)
The years · 2000–2012
Quick facts about Katherine Boo
- Known for
- Katherine Boo is known for deeply reported narrative journalism, above all Behind the Beautiful Forevers, her account of a Mumbai settlement beside the airport, which won the National Book Award.
- 2000
- Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
- 2002
- MacArthur Fellowship
- Career
- The Washington Post; staff writer at The New Yorker
- Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (2000); MacArthur Fellowship (2002); National Book Award (2012)
- Book
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012)
The red mark is 2012: Behind the Beautiful Forevers, her only book, which won the National Book Award.
How Katherine Boo Works: Disappearing from the Story
Boo spent more than three years in Annawadi, recording conversations and collecting thousands of public documents, so that she could tell events from inside the lives of her subjects.
She writes in the third person and never appears in the narrative, explaining her methods only in an author's note.
Watch
Katherine Boo in Conversation with Steve Clemons
Steve Clemons of The Atlantic talks with Katherine Boo about Behind the Beautiful Forevers and her three years of reporting in a Mumbai settlement, recorded on 16 April 2018 for the Helen Edison Lecture Series. From the official University of California Television (UCTV) channel.
Frequently asked questions about Katherine Boo's books
How many books has Katherine Boo written?
Katherine Boo has written one book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers (2012).
Is Behind the Beautiful Forevers a true story?
Yes. It is based on more than three years of reporting in Annawadi, a settlement beside the Mumbai airport. It won the National Book Award.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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