ADVANCE PRAISE

"Sonia 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. With her we hear, we see, we feel and finally know the world behind that door: a world that was unimaginable before Faleiro drew us there to sleep and wake and walk within it, but is unforgettable when the last page, the last beaded curtain is drawn to a close."

— Gregory David Roberts, author of "Shantaram"

"A rare glimpse into dismissed lives. Sonia Faleiro brings a novelist's eye for detail and a depth of empathy to her work. This is a magnificent book of reportage that is also endowed with all the terror and beauty of art."

— Kiran Desai, Booker-prize winning author of "The Inheritance of Loss"

"Beautiful Thing is a brilliant debut that catapults Sonia Faleiro straight to the top of the premiere division of Indian writers of non-fiction. Faleiro has written a small masterpiece of observation and intimate reportage — a sassy, sensitive and deeply moving account of one bar girl's journey spiralling down through the circles of hell that is Bombay's sex industry. 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"

"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"