*One 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
