Description

‘If you read one book about India, read this one.’ Geeta Anand, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of The Cure

‘Mountain Tales is a remarkable feat of immersive reporting and story-telling, a deeply-felt exploration of ideas, and a gripping chronicle of the fates of the garbage-pickers of Mumbai … I loved this book.’ Suzy Hansen, author of Notes on a Foreign Country

All of Mumbai’s memories and castaway possessions come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. And among these vast, teetering piles of discarded things – medical waste, rotten food, old clothes, broken glass and twisted metal – a small, forgotten community lives and works. Scouring the dump for whatever can be resold or recycled, waste pickers also mark the familiar milestones of babies born, love found, illnesses suffered and recovered from. Like a mirror image, their stories are shaped by the influx of unwanted things from the world outside.

But now, as Deonar’s toxic halo becomes undeniable, a change is coming. And as officials try to close it, the lives that the pickers have built on the Mountain seem more fragile than ever.

Publisher Review

A terrific and thrilling book about people who are trapped in the gravitational force of a garbage mountain in Mumbai. Delightful and powerful. * Manu Joseph, author of Serious Men * Roy has a journalist's unflinching eye, a poet's talent for detail, and a radical sense of empathy that illuminates this account of the people who live on the Deonar garbage mountains. Urgent as a thriller, yet lingering in its unforgettable portraits of life, love and death, Mountain Tales deserves every accolade. A stunning achievement. -- Kiran Desai, Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss 'Roy writes ... with utmost care and empathy ... [a] powerful book * Times of India * It is rare that a book is a deeply moving love story with unforgettable characters while also illuminating a country and a culture. Saumya Roy's book is a riveting love story set in the harrowing world of life as a trash picker on Mumbai's garbage mountain. Read it for a most delicious story, read it to understand India, read it to know what it is like to grow up in extreme poverty in the shadow of enormous wealth. If you read one book about India, read this one. -- Geeta Anand, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of The Cure Saumya Roy's gorgeous Mountain Tales is a remarkable feat of immersive reporting and story-telling, a deeply-felt exploration of ideas, and a gripping chronicle of the fates of the garbage-pickers of Mumbai; Roy immerses you so deeply in her characters' lives and physical environment that at times I felt I was experiencing them myself. I loved this book. -- Suzy Hansen, author of Notes on a Foreign Country Roy unravels the truth about overconsumption, pollution, climate change and how the most vulnerable people bear the brunt of it all * Vogue India * A gut-wrenching story ... her lucid writing not only draws the reader but also helps to reflect upon how one person's trash impacts another's life -- Soma Basu * The Hindu * Gorgeous and heartbreaking ... Roy succeeds in humanizing her subjects while emphasizing the role that consumer culture plays in their degradation. ... Readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers will be drawn to this harrowing portrait. * Publishers Weekly * A story of selflessness and sacrifice, of acceptance and renewal. The goodness in people, both in the streets where the Shaikh family lives and beyond comes to the fore ... A sense of mystery and wonderment gives Roy's tale a special edge -- Mustansir Delvi * Wire India * A revelation in the most shattering ways * GQ * Saumya Roy's Mountain Tales captures the unique story of Mumbai's garbage mountain at Deonar district and the people who survive around it ... a must-read * Telegraph India * This powerful real-life tale from India reads like fiction * Washington Independent Review of Books *