One Book One Community Selection for 2012

The city of East Lansing and Michigan State University announce the 2012 One Book, One Community (OBOC) book selection, New York Times bestseller “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Katherine Boo.

Community members can meet the author as she kicks off the month-long OBOC program on Sunday, August 26 at 7 p.m. with a community talk and book signing at the East Lansing High School auditorium. On Monday, August 27 she will also address the incoming MSU freshman class at the Academic Welcome in the Jack Breslin Student Events Center. Both events are FREE to the community.

A series of community and campus events are planned around the themes in “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” throughout the month of September.

About the Book
Strategically located on the road to Mumbai’s glittering airport and luxury hotels is a giant billboard advertising floor tiles that stay beautiful forever. The billboard hides Annawadi, a makeshift squatter’s slum that is home to some of India’s poorest citizens. Boo sensitively follows the lives of three Annawadi families and a cluster of orphaned boys as they scrape out a living sorting trash and other grueling labors.

About the Author
Katherine Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Boo‘s reporting from disadvantaged communities has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur “Genius” grant. For the last decade, she has divided her time between the United States and India, the birthplace of her husband, Sunil Khilnani. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” is her first book.

About the Program
The annual OBOC program, sponsored by the city of East Lansing and MSU, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. First launched in 2001 by city and university representatives with Ray Bradbury’s classic “Fahrenheit 451,” the program has brought East Lansing’s diverse community together each academic year with a new book and distinguished author.

For more information, please visit www.onebookeastlansing.com.