On Garbage and Ice: Ethics of the Slums in Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers

The present paper dwells on the complex representation of the Indian slums in Katherine Boo’s 2012 novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Leaving behind the conventional oversentimentalised and over-optimistic literary and cinematographic depictions, the writer places her text on the boundary between fiction and journalism, discussing poverty, inequality, hope and despair in one of the most surprising cities of the globalised world, from a new perspective.