Megha Majumdar

In A Burning, Megha Majumdar tells the story of three people whose lives become entangled after a terrorist attack on a train in India. Jivan, a young Muslim woman from a poor neighborhood, is arrested after posting a critical comment about the government’s response to the tragedy. As she awaits trial, two people who could help her pursue their own ambitions: Lovely, a hijra and aspiring actress who once received kindness from Jivan, and PT Sir, her former physical education teacher, who becomes involved in politics. As the legal system fails Jivan, the others face choices that reveal the costs of ambition, social conformity, and self-preservation. Through these intersecting lives, Majumdar examines religious discrimination, corruption, class inequality, and the fragility of justice in contemporary India. The novel offers a tense and compelling portrait of how political power and public opinion can determine the fate of vulnerable individuals.

Set in a near-future Kolkata devastated by extreme heat and environmental crisis, A Guardian and a Thief follows two families whose lives become entangled through desperation and difficult moral choices. Ma, a mother determined to secure a future for her young daughter and elderly father, is preparing to leave India for the United States. Her plans are threatened when a young thief steals the documents her family needs to emigrate. The thief, meanwhile, is struggling to feed his own child in a city where poverty and climate catastrophe have made survival increasingly difficult. As their stories unfold over a single week, Majumdar explores the boundaries between right and wrong when people are pushed to desperate extremes. The novel examines inequality, parenthood, migration, and the moral compromises people make when protecting their families becomes a matter of survival.