Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars

Sonia Faleiro was a reporter in search of a story when she met Leela, a beautiful and charismatic bar dancer with a story to tell. Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay's dance bars: a world of glamorous women, of fierce love, sex and violence, of customers and gangsters, of police, prostitutes and pimps. When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality, and had Bombay's dance bars wiped out, Leela's proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive, and to win. Beautiful Thing, one of the most original works of non-fiction from India in years, is a vivid and intimate portrait of one reporter's journey into the dark, pulsating and ultimately damaged soul of Bombay.

[An] intimate and valuable book of literary reportage . . . [Faleiro's] language, like dots of coloured light pinging from a smudgy mirrored ball, casts an intoxicating if unsettling glow. . . . Will break your heart several times over Dwight Garner, The New York Times

A gripping and intimate portrayal of the lives of the women who work in [India's sex industry]. She manages to evoke shock, rage, and laughter. . . . The book is a moving testament to girls who deal with the brutal hand fate has dealt them by capitalizing on the gifts they do have: beauty, an inner strength, and each other Literary Review

Brilliant . . . It's most outstanding quality to my eye is the window it offers on the widespread sexual repression that exists in India today, and the murky middle-class morality that rules it The Guardian

A riveting exposé . . . For a book that's so short, Faleiro manages to pack a lot in: pimps, gangsters, transvestites, cops and madams. But its most outstanding quality to my eye is the window it offers on the widespread sexual repression that exists in India today, and the murky middle-class morality that rules it . . . The real triumph of Beautiful Thing is how Faleiro dismantles the grand tradition of marriage in India, exposing it for what it is a form of slavery for a large percentage of women who are bound to their husbands for food and the roofs over their heads, but rarely ever for love Observer

Excellent . . . A meticulous, moving account of the battle for social mobility and personal freedom in Bombay . . . A rich portrait of the desires, vulnerabilities, and sheer resilience of Leela and her colleagues The Sunday Telegraph

A tour de force of heartrending reportage . . . which blends rigorous journalistic research with the narrative skills of a novelist. . . . With tight focus and pacing, [Faleiro] is adept at conjuring the brutal backstory of these lives The Independent

The rich, gaudy tapestry that Faleiro weaves is a reminder that some of the best recent books about India, such as Suketu Mehta s Maximum City, also about Mumbai, give us the big picture by focusing on the microcosm The Financial Times

A glimpse into a frightening subculture unlike anything that a typical American has ever experienced. . . . With crackling prose, Faleiro provides an intense, disconcertingly entertaining [look] into the shadowy corners of a foreign culture; the fast-paced narrative, while undeniably journalistic, reads like a thriller. But what ultimately gives the book its resonance is Faleiro's empathy and love for her fully developed subjects. In lesser hands, these young people could have come off as clichés, but the author makes sure we care for them and root for them to survive a life that most will never understand. Gritty, gripping, and often heartbreaking an impressive piece of narrative nonfiction Kirkus Review (starred)

Does what every good piece of reportage ought to took me to a place I couldn't have gone by myself Hari Kunzru, Guardian (Best Books of 2011)

A small masterpiece of observation . . . Sassy, sensitive, and deeply moving . . . Beautiful Thing opens up a hidden world with startling insight and intimacy, and strangely is both a tragic monument to the abused bar girls of Bombay and a celebration of their amazing resilience and spirit William Dalrymple, author of Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

A rare glimpse into dismissed lives. Faleiro brings a novelist s eye for detail and a depth of empathy to her work. A magnificent book of reportage that is also endowed with all the terror and beauty of art --Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss

'Faleiro writes her way into the bloodstream with this mesmeric book, fashioned with heart and enviable acuity. A shocking, funny and memorable ride Nikita Lalwani, author of Gifted

Unforgettable . . . Faleiro has transformed a door, studded with rusted nails of truth, heavy with the strange and disturbing secrets it hides, into a jewelled curtain, and she has drawn that curtain aside with an artist s hand --Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram