"A gripping and intimate portrayal of the lives of the women who work in [India's sex industry]. She manages to evoke shock, rage, and laughter. . . . The book is a moving testament to girls who deal with the brutal hand fate has dealt them by capitalizing on the gifts they do have: beauty, an inner strength, and each other."-Edna Fernandes, Literary Review (UK)

"Astonishing, gripping, immersive." -Time Out (India)

"Unforgettable . . . Faleiro has transformed a door, studded with rusted nails of truth, heavy with the strange and disturbing secrets it hides, into a jeweled curtain, and she has drawn that curtain aside with an artist's hand." -Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram

"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

"Compelling . . . Faleiro has captured a world many refuse to acknowledge and shown it in a delicate, nonjudgmental and touching way." -GQ (India)

"Detailed, disturbing, admirable. A big achievement." -The Indian Express

"A small masterpiece of observation . . . Sassy, sensitive, and deeply moving . . . 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: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

"Without question a brilliant, unforgettable book by a writer who is one of the best of her generation . . . One of the most intimate and gripping books written about Bombay in a very long while." -Business Standard (India)

"A rare glimpse into dismissed lives. Faleiro brings a novelist's eye for detail and a depth of empathy to her work. A magnifi cent book of reportage that is also endowed with all the terror and beauty of art." -Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of Loss