Suketu Mehta Livres

An impassioned defence of global immigration from the acclaimed author of Maximum City.Drawing on his family's own experience emigrating from India to Britain and America, and years of reporting around the world, Suketu Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny.

Suketu Mehta Left Bombay At The Age Of 14. Twenty-One Years Later, Having Lived In Paris, London And New York'S East Village, He Returned To Rediscover The Only City He Calls His Own. The Result Is This Stunning, Brilliantly Illuminating Portrait Of The Megalopolis And Its People A Book, Seven Years In The Making, That Is As Vast, As Diverse, As Rich In Experience, Incident And Sensation As The City Itself. Mehta Approaches The Life And Lives Of Bombay From Unexpected Angles. He Takes Us Into The Underworld Where Muslim And Hindu Gangs Manage To Wrest Some Control Of The Byzantine Political And Commercial Systems Of The City. He Follows The Life Of A Bar Dancer, Whose Childhood Of Poverty And Abuse Left Her No Choice But The One She Made. He Journeys On The Famed Local Trains And Out Onto The Streets And Footpaths, Where The Essential Story Of Bombay Is Played Out Every Day By The Countless Migrants Who Come In Search Of A Better Life. He Opens Windows Into The Inner Sanctums Of Bollywood And The Alternative Universe At Its Fringes. And Through It All As Each Individual Story Unfolds We Hear Mehta'S Own Story: Of The Mixture Of Love, Frustration, Fascination, And Intense Identification He Feels For And With Bombay. Candid, Impassioned, Insightful, Both Surprisingly Funny And Heart-Rending, Maximum City Is A Revelation Of A Complex And Ever-Changing World: The Continent Of Bombay.

"There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and rancor these days than immigration. In [this book], the renowned author Suketu Mehta offers a reality-based polemic that vitally clarifies the debate. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the globe, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by fear of immigrants. Ranging from Dubai and Morocco to New York City, Mehta contrasts the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, domestic workers, and others, and he takes readers on a heartbreaking trip to San Diego and Tijuana, where a border fence divides families and damages lives. Throughout, Mehta shows why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality in large swaths of the world: when today's immigrants are asked, "Why are you here?" they can justly respond, "We are here because you were there." And now that they are here, Mehta contends, they bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, [this book] is an urgent and necessary intervention, and a literary argument of the highest order"--dust jacket

A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs, following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse, opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood, and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks.As each individual story unfolds, Mehta also recounts his own efforts to make a home in Bombay after more than twenty years abroad. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.

Seit er in New York angekommen ist, hat Mahesh vieles vergessen: den Beruf seines Vaters, den Wohnort seiner Großeltern, seine Kaste. Vor allem aber kann er sich partout nicht mehr an den Namen seiner Mutter erinnern. Was besonders misslich ist, denn ohne ihn kann er sein Einbürgerungsformular nicht ausfüllen, nicht amerikanischer Staatsbürger werden und in seiner Firma aufsteigen. Die Suche nach dem verlorenen Namen führt ihn nach Jackson Heights, nach Little India. Dort erhält er eine Süßigkeit mit magischen Nüssen und trifft einen Lügenexperten, der seiner Erinnerung auf die Sprünge helfen will. Aber war Maheshs Großvater ein Gewerkschaftsanwalt? Hat seine Familie einen Handel mit Menschenhaar, Skeletten und lebenden Fröschen betrieben? War der Name seiner Mutter wirklich Indira Gandhi oder Henry Ford? Was ist überhaupt Wahrheit, was Erinnerung?