Maximum city : Bombay Lost and Found

More about the book

A brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people, this work offers a vast, diverse, and rich experience reflective of the city itself, penned by an award-winning Indian-American fiction writer and journalist. As a native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta provides an insider's view, infused with rare insight, detail, and intimacy. He explores the city from unexpected angles, delving into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs vying for control of its intricate political and commercial systems. The narrative follows the life of a bar dancer who embraces her limited options after a childhood marked by poverty and abuse, and it opens doors to the hierarchical inner workings of Bollywood. Mehta shares the stories of countless individuals who migrate from villages in search of a better life, only to find themselves living on sidewalks—an essential saga of a great city. Throughout these individual tales, Mehta's own journey of love, frustration, and identification with Bombay unfolds as he seeks to reconnect with his roots after twenty-one years abroad. He emphasizes that Bombay, the world’s largest city, foreshadows the vast megalopolises that will redefine urban life in the future. Candid, impassioned, and heartrending, this work reveals an ancient and ever-changing world.