作者Siddhartha Deb以小說家的筆法揭開了當今印度的黑色喜劇，
以真實的人物為本，生動描繪了這個國家的眾生相。
「這，又是一幕印度的現實。儘管滿口的科技經，這個教養良好、漂亮體面的年輕人，為了找一份工作，和五十年前的男人一樣，迢迢長路，奔波於東一家西一家的工廠之間，指望自己的文明素養能夠得到一次面試的機會。」
當富可敵國的1％與貧窮窘迫的99％尖銳對立，乘以10億人口，會是什麼樣悚人的光景？西方新自由主義橫掃印度，為這塊擁有古老文明底蘊的金磚拋光，打磨出光可鑑人的經濟成長，同時也豢養出吞噬人心的都市巨獸，銷殆了人與家庭、土地和夢想的情感連結。
世上沒有一個國家如印度這般，在缺乏基礎建設的沙地上疊床架屋，猶如踩著浮石一般驚險躍進。迅速擴張的科技產業、跨國外包的電信客服，讓亟欲擺脫種姓制度窠臼的新世代印度青年，得以穿上西方國家為他們準備的資本主義劣質新衣，看似脫貧，實淪新貧，落入另一種經濟階級制度的無間地獄。那裡沒有未來，沒有夢想，只有殘酷的金錢遊戲，而他們，始終是輸家。
《印度的美麗與詛咒》細膩動人，以小說家的筆法揭開了當今印度的黑色喜劇。作者以真實的人物為本，生動描繪了這個國家的眾生相：既上進又徬徨，既絕望又期待，既美麗又詛咒。
本書重點
紐約時報年度好書The Point of Return作者Siddhartha Deb筆下的印度黑色喜劇，既上進又徬徨，既絕望又期待，既美麗又詛咒。
Siddhartha Deb grew up in a remote town in the northeastern hills of India and made his way to the United States via a fellowship at Columbia. Six years after leaving home, he returned as an undercover reporter for The Guardian, working at a call center in Delhi in 2004, a time when globalization was fast proceeding and Thomas L. Friedman declared the world flat. Deb's experience interviewing the call-center staff led him to undertake this book and travel throughout the subcontinent.
The Beautiful and the Damned examines India's many contradictions through various individual and extraordinary perspectives. With lyrical and commanding prose, Deb introduces the reader to an unforgettable group of Indians, including a Gatsby-like mogul in Delhi whose hobby is producing big-budget gangster films that no one sees; a wiry, dusty farmer named Gopeti whose village is plagued by suicides and was the epicenter of a riot; and a sad-eyed waitress named Esther who has set aside her dual degrees in biochemistry and botany to serve Coca-Cola to arms dealers at an upscale hotel called Shangri La.
Like no other writer, Deb humanizes the post-globalization experience—its advantages, failures, and absurdities. India is a country where you take a nap and someone has stolen your job, where you buy a BMW but still have to idle for cows crossing your path. A personal, narrative work of journalism and cultural analysis in the same vein as Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family and V. S. Naipaul's India series, The Beautiful and the Damned is an important and incisive new work.
The Beautiful and the Damned is a Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction title for 2011.
