A Burning: The most electrifying debut of 2021

by Megha Majumdar

 
A girl walks through the slums of Kolkata holding an armful of books. She returns home smelling of smoke, and checks her most prized possession: a brand-new smartphone, purchased in instalments. On Facebook, there is only one conversation.

#KolabaganTrainAttack

On the small, glowing screen, she types a dangerous thing…

‘If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean that the government is also a terrorist?’

Set in contemporary India, A Burning is the story of three unforgettable characters, all dreaming of a better future, whose lives are changed for ever when they become caught up in the devastating aftermath of a terrorist attack.  

Jivan – a poor, young, Muslim girl, who dreams of going to college – faces a possible death sentence after being accused of collaborating with the terrorists.
Lovely – an exuberant hijra who longs to be a Bollywood star – holds the alibi that can set Jivan free, but telling the truth will cost her everything she holds dear.
PT Sir – an opportunistic gym teacher who once taught Jivan – becomes involved with Hindu nationalist politics and his own ascent is soon inextricably linked to Jivan’s fall.

Taut, propulsive and electrifying, from its opening lines to its astonishing finale, A Burning confronts issues of class, fate, prejudice and corruption with a Dickensian sense of injustice, and asks us to consider what it means to nurture big ambitions in a country hurtling towards political extremism.

ABurning is a novel for our times and for all time.
 

• ISBN10: 1471190277
• ISBN13: 9781471190278
• Publish Date: 2 June 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 April 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Scribner UK
• Edition: Export/Airside
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

I’ve been trying to work out how I feel about this one. Disappointed, for one, as my expectations were too high for what the book delivered. But also unsettled? And not in the way (I’m guessing) Majumdar intended. It feels like the book accidentally wound up serving the anti-Muslim, pro-nationalist view it was supposed to refute?

Note the question marks. As I said, still trying to sort out my thoughts. I get how it’s a cautionary tale, and it does well to portray how the characters are cogs in the system. But it’s also more of an intellectual exercise, and a predictable one, instead of deep, complex characters that engage empathy, or even anger. The book contains so much apathy— it rewards apathy, even— that it’s hard to come away feeling the opposite.

And do I really want to finish a book like A Burning and feel like I absorbed its… apathy?

I dunno. It’s weird. Still digesting the experience. Even writing out this review hasn’t helped me sort out my thoughts. Will have to sit with it a while and report back in time.

(Also still digesting the fact that it was picked by Jenna Bush Hager’s book club, whose father bears no small responsibility for the nationalistic and anti-Muslim violence in the US. So is it her acknowledgement that that legacy is evil, or is the book so mild in its censure that one could read it and not connect the two?)