Megha Majumdar’s debut novel, A Burning, begins with a terrorist attack at a train station in Kolkata that claims over one hundred lives. Jivan, a Muslim teenager who lives in the nearby slums, happens to witness the attack, but when she makes a post on Facebook that is critical of the government response, she finds herself under arrest as a suspect. Majumdar deftly weaves several narrative threads together in a novel that is fast-paced enough to feel like a literary thriller, yet also turns a wise eye toward the complexities of life in contemporary India..... In her debut, she reveals herself to be keenly attuned to the injustices of life in contemporary Kolkata, especially when it comes to issues of class and gender...., A Burning is not just a novel about India, but also a mirror through which American readers might contemplate the failings of our own increasingly degraded political system...The novel ends on a dark note, a stark reminder that those who rise to power often do so at the expense of the poor and the powerless. In this way, A Burning is very much a novel for our times.

Megha Majumdar’s blistering debut novel, “A Burning,” unleashes her plight like a series of small explosions. As a Muslim woman living in poverty, Jivan must reckon with classism and Islamophobia, social media’s mob mentality, traditional media’s unquenchable thirst for clickbait and profit over “A Burning” is a penetrating exposé about how the possibilities of fame and fortune gradually erode one’s integrity. The book’s title may represent, on a literal level, the violent act in its opening pages, but it also evokes a dynamic metaphor for greed and the dark side of ambition. That Majumdar has chosen to illustrate this with Lovely and PT Sir, two seemingly well-meaning characters who hail from humble circumstances not too far from Jivan’s own, makes the book’s execution all the more unsparing.....What’s more, “A Burning” keenly illuminates the unfortunate reality that justice has limited reserves and a rigid expiration date. In a predicament that echoes Darwinism, someone must take the fall so that others may survive and thrive, regardless of innocence or guilt

In “A Burning,” the debut novel from novelist Megha Majumdar, lives intertwine in the wake of a terrorist attack at an Indian train station...
Told through the viewpoint of three interconnected characters, tells a thrilling story that addresses class struggles, gender inequality, religious tensions and more in society....While this is a story set in India, Majumdar has been thinking about the book’s parallels to life here in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the questions that “A Burning” poses.

“How do we achieve a life that’s meaningful for us when we are caught in a society that does not serve us, when we’re caught in institutions and systems that don’t work for us?” Majumdar asks.