Yesterday’s rave from reviewer Janet Maslin in the New York Times, helped to boost Katherine Boo’s book about a slum in Mumbai Behind the Beautiful Forevers into the top 100 on Amazon sales rankings. Libraries are beginning to show heavy holds on modest ordering (most libraries have bought one copy for their largest branches; holds are as high as 12:1)

Holds are likely to grow; both NPR’s Fresh Air and Morning Edition are scheduled to feature it next week, the author will be profiled by Chip McGrath in the NYT and it is scheduled for review in the NYT Book Review. It is also tops O Magazine‘s “17 Books to Watch for in February.”

Our crystal ball? It will be this year’s Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

In addition to the audio and large type editions of the book, there is an enhanced ebook version (included the WSJ‘s guide to the best forthcoming enhanced books) which features videos of daily life shot by some of the slum children using the author’s camera.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity Katherine Boo Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Random House – (2012-02-07) ISBN 97814000-67558

BOT Audio; Thorndike Large Print; OverDrive ebook and audio

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 11:01 am and is filed under 2011/12 - Winter/Spring, Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.