{"product_id":"beautiful-and-the-damned-9780865478732","title":"Beautiful and the Damned","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Beautiful and the Damned\u003c\/i\u003e presents an affecting, incisive portrait of the vast, fascinating, and incongruent country that is globalized India.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSiddhartha Deb grew up in a remote town in the northeastern hills of India and made his way to the United States via a fellowship at Columbia. Six years after leaving home, he returned as an undercover reporter for \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, working at a call center in Delhi in 2004, a time when globalization was fast proceeding and Thomas L. Friedman declared the world flat. Deb's experience interviewing the call-center staff led him to undertake this book and travel throughout the subcontinent. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Beautiful and the Damned \u003c\/i\u003eexamines India's many contradictions through various individual and extraordinary perspectives. With lyrical and commanding prose, Deb introduces the reader to an unforgettable group of Indians, including a Gatsby-like mogul in Delhi whose hobby is producing big-budget gangster films that no one sees; a wiry, dusty farmer named Gopeti whose village is plagued by suicides and was the epicenter of a riot; and a sad-eyed waitress named Esther who has set aside her dual degrees in biochemistry and botany to serve Coca-Cola to arms dealers at an upscale hotel called Shangri La. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLike no other writer, Deb humanizes the post-globalization experience--its advantages, failures, and absurdities. India is a country where you take a nap and someone has stolen your job, where you buy a BMW but still have to idle for cows crossing your path. A personal, narrative work of journalism and cultural analysis in the same vein as Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's \u003ci\u003eRandom Family \u003c\/i\u003eand V. S. Naipaul's India series, \u003ci\u003eThe Beautiful and the Damned \u003c\/i\u003eis an important and incisive work. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e Best Nonfiction Book\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e Best Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSiddhartha Deb\u003c\/b\u003e, who teaches creative writing at the New School, is the author of two novels: \u003ci\u003eThe Point of Return\u003c\/i\u003e, which was a 2003 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book of the Year, and \u003ci\u003eAn Outline of the Republic\u003c\/i\u003e. His reviews and journalism have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper's Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003en+1\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Strauss \u0026 Giroux-3pl","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50492188885266,"sku":"9780865478732","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9190c8cb-dba5-4c89-ba13-1bea1170f8e3.jpg?v=1730576063","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/beautiful-and-the-damned-9780865478732","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}