The Beautiful and the Damned

There is a nuance to even the direst of Deb's pessimisms--an acknowledgement that India's lives are newly precarious precisely because they could swing either the way of opportunity or the way of ruin. * New York Times *
Siddhartha Deb is a marvelous participatory journalist, a keen observer of contemporary India. [ . . . ] Anyone wanting to understand contemporary India's glaring contradictions, its juxtapositions of glittering boomtowns with horrific slums, should read Deb's wonderfully researched and elegantly written account * Minneapolis Star Tribune *
[An] incisive new look at life on the subcontinent. [ . . . ] For those who have never been to India, the book will be an eye-opening read. For those more familiar with the country, it will be essential. * Daily *
This brave book strikes a rare note - as a work of journalism and as an interpretation of India's maladies. The Beautiful and the Damned digs beneath the self-congratulatory stories India tell itself - all the better to expose the stories it seeks to repress. * Bookforum *
This is a brilliant and sensitive book that succeeds in shifting our gaze from the dazzling glass and steel towers of the business park to the collateral damage suffered by people caught in the age-old tensions between economic mirage, constricting cultural tradition and overbearing social expectation. * Sunday Times *
In his subtle, sometimes startlingly intelligent narrative, Deb is drawn to the idea of pretence, and to pretenders, of which he--writer, confidant, friend, provincial, global traveler--is one himself [ . . . ] In these pages, Deb is quickened by his extraordinary feeling for the texture of lower middle-class life, as well as his unerring sensitivity to the way a country yet again transforms itself. * Guardian *
A compelling read. The author's experience as a journalist ensures that he hardly wastes a word, his local knowledge gives him depth and empathy, while his status as a novelist seems to protect him from intrusive literary flourishes [ . . . ] Deb generally offers a shrewder, more humane perspective than most travelogues. * Literary Review *
As a first-hand report, this is authentic, assured and absolutely engrossing, acutely pinpointing the aspirational tragic-comic ironies of modern India. * The Times (London) *