This year’s One Book, One Community author may only have one book under her belt, but she’s got plenty of background and experience to make for an interesting and thought-provoking program this year.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Katherine Boo is a current writer for The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, chronicles the three years she spent in an Indian slum known as Annawadi, located in the shadows of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. Boo lived with the residents in order to hear their stories, understand their lives and discover characteristics that all humans share.

The novel closely follows three Annawadian families and details their struggles with poverty, the caste system and their determination to climb out of it. The non-fiction story is told in a narrative form and moves quickly to tell Katherine’s story of one of India’s hidden worlds.

Katherine will be speaking on Sunday, August 26, at 7 p.m. at the East Lansing High School auditorium located at 509 Burcham Drive. Admission is free and the doors will open at 6:15 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served.

The author also will welcome freshman at the MSU Academic Welcome at the Breslin Student Events Center on Monday, August 27, at 9 a.m., which is open to the public.

For more information on the author and other related events, visit http://www.onebookeastlansing.com/.