Maximum City
Will be published approx. on 5. September 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
608 pages
978-0-7472-5969-5 (ISBN)
Description
An international bestseller upon publication, MAXIMUM CITY was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and remains a classic study of the metropolis of Bombay. 'If there's been a more striking snapshot of the changing face of Asia, I've never read it' Sunday Times
Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes.
The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself.
Part memoir, part journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist, Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people - a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself.
Bombay's story is told through the lives, often desperately near the edge, of some of the people who live there. Hitmen, dancing girls, cops, movie stars, poets, beggars and politicians - Suketu looked at the city through their eyes.
The complex texture of these extraordinary tales is threaded together by Suketu Mehta's own history of growing up in Bombay and returning to live there after a 21-year absence, and in looking through the eyes of his found the city within himself.
Part memoir, part journalism, part travelogue, and written with the relentless observation and patience of a novelist, Maximum City is a brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people - a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself.
Reviews / Votes
Pick of the Week - 'If there's been a more striking snapshot of the changing face of Asia, I've never read it. With energy, wit and endless reserves of empathy, Maximum City leaves you desperate to see Bombay for yourself...' * Sunday Times * '... it is Mehta's enthusiastic and intrepid self at the centre of his narrative that lends his account its appeal and memorable poetic charge.' * Observer * 'Mehta's extraordinary, and extraordinarily rich book, is both testimony and warning; a snapshot of a city full of vitality and hate.' * The Telegraph * 'Combining an insider's knowledge with a visitor's detachment, he prises open the rotten underbelly of the city to expose an unforgettable picture of depravity, greed sectarian strife and corruption. This is a stupendous book' * Mail on Sunday *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
430 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7472-5969-5 (9780747259695)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Suketu Mehta is a fiction writer and journalist based in New York. He has won the Whiting Writers Award, the O.Henry Prize, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction. His work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Granta, Harper's Magazine, Time and Conde Nast Traveler. Mehta also co-wrote Mission Kashmir, a Bollywood movie.