000			02677nam a22002657a 4500
008			231127b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a978-1662600951
082			_a954.792 _bROY
100			_aRoy, Saumya.
245			_aCastaway mountain : love and loss among the wastepickers of Mumbai
250			_a1st ed.
260			_aAmerica _bAstra House _c2021
300			_axii, 259p.
520			_aOne of NPR's "Books We Love 2021"* "'I came to see the mountains as an outpouring of our modern lives,' Roy writes, 'of the endless chase for our desires to fill us.' Readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers will be drawn to this harrowing portrait."—Publishers Weekly "Castaway Mountain deserves every accolade. A stunning achievement."—Kiran Desai, Booker Prize Winner, author of Inheritance of Loss.All of Mumbai’s possessions and memories come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. Towering at the outskirts of the city, the mountains are covered in a faint smog from trash fires. Over time, as wealth brought Bollywood knock offs, fast food and plastics to Mumbaikars, a small, forgotten community of migrants and rag-pickers came to live at the mountains’ edge, making a living by re-using, recycling and re-selling. Among them is Farzana Ali Shaikh, a tall, adventurous girl who soon becomes one of the best pickers in her community. Over time, her family starts to fret about Farzana’s obsessive relationship to the garbage. Like so many in her community, Farzana, made increasingly sick by the trash mountains, is caught up in the thrill of discovery—because among the broken glass, crushed cans, or even the occasional dead baby, there’s a lingering chance that she will find a treasure to lift her family’s fortunes. As Farzana enters adulthood, her way of life becomes more precarious. Mumbai is pitched as a modern city, emblematic of the future of India, forcing officials to reckon with closing the dumping grounds, which would leave the waste pickers more vulnerable than ever. In a narrative instilled with superstition and magical realism, Saumya Roy crafts a modern parable exploring the consequences of urban overconsumption. A moving testament to the impact of fickle desires, Castaway Mountain reveals that when you own nothing, you know where true value lies: in family, community and love. Interior map illustration copyright (c) Jake Coolidge
546			_aEnglish
650			_aMarginality, Social
650			_aSanitary landfills
650			_aIndia--Mumbai
650			_aIndia
650			_aSocial conditions
650			_aHuman ecology
650			_aPoor
650			_aRagpickers--Economic conditions
942			_cBKS
999			_c14641 _d14641