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Mountain Tales

Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings
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( 91 ratings, 21 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Mountain Tales by Saumya Roy explores the lives of those living in the shadow of Mumbai's massive Deonar garbage mountain. The book delves into their daily struggles, highlighting how entrenched social issues and environmental concerns intertwine. Through the personal stories of these marginalized communities, Roy sheds light on broader societal challenges and resilience.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by the interplay between environmental issues and human resilience. The narrative offers a gripping exploration of life amidst the world's largest waste mountains, blending history with compelling personal stories that reveal the struggles and triumphs of those living on its fringes.

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A city struggling with the cost of its appetites. A rubbish mountain eighteen stories high. And the people who call it home.

A city struggling with the cost of its appetites. A rubbish mountain eighteen stories high. And the people who call it home.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! 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, and 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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Mountain Tales by Saumya Roy is acclaimed for its gripping depiction of life surrounding Mumbai's infamous garbage mountains. It combines a journalist’s precision and empathy, offering urgent and unforgettable portraits of those living as trash pickers. Critics praise it as a powerful and immersive exploration, highlighting its emotional depth and its ability to illuminate broader societal issues.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781788165372

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 June 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Profile Books Ltd

Edition: Main

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 304

About the Author

Saumya Roy is a journalist and activist based in Mumbai. In 2010, she co-founded Vandana Foundation to support the livelihoods of Mumbai's poorest micro-entrepreneurs; through this she met the community who depend on Deonar. Her writing has appeared in Forbes India magazine, wsj.com and Bloomberg News among others, and she has contributed a chapter to Dharavi: The Cities Within (HarperCollins, 2013), an anthology of essays on Asia's largest slum.

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