Mountain Tales: Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings

In the Deonar garbage mountains in Mumbai, a small forgotten community lives and works among medical waste, rotten food, old clothes, broken glass, and twisted metal. Their stories are shaped by the influx of unwanted things from the world outside, but now, as officials try to close it, their lives are more fragile than ever.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 08 July 2021
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Roy possesses a journalist's keen eye, a poet's keen attention to detail, and a profound sense of empathy, resulting in a remarkable achievement. - Kiran Desai, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss, has praised this book as a must-read for anyone interested in India. - Geeta Anand, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the author of The Cure, has recommended this book as the one to read about India. The Deonar garbage mountains in Mumbai serve as a final resting place for all of Mumbai's memories and abandoned possessions. Among these vast, unstable piles of discarded items, a small, forgotten community thrives and works. These waste pickers scavenge through the dump, searching for anything that can be resold or recycled. In doing so, they also mark the significant milestones of life, such as the birth of babies, the discovery of love, the onset of illness, and the recovery from it. Their stories mirror the influx of unwanted goods from the outside world, shaping their experiences. However, as the toxic effects of Deonar become increasingly evident, a change is underway. As officials attempt to close down the dump, the lives of the pickers, who have built their livelihoods on the mountain, appear more fragile than ever.

Weight: 412g
Dimension: 144 x 222 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788165365
Edition number: Main