A Burning: A novel

A Burning: A novel

Megha Majumdar • Vintage

ISBN-10: 0525658696 · ISBN-13: 978‑0593081259 · 2021

Live offer for this book: 74 live copies of this book from $3.88 (as of 2026-09-09).

Dimensions: 8in. × 5.2in. × 0.6in.; 7.6 Oz

Canonical book record

Completeness 61

Cover quality: low resolution

2manybooks editorial

WINNER OF THE WHITING AWARD • A New York Times Notable Book • National Book Award Nominee • One of the Guardian's Best Books of the Year • National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award Nominee • American Library Accociation Andrew Carnegie Medal Finalist For readers of Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, and Jhumpa Lahiri, an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies—and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor—has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear. Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut. Megha Majumdar was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She moved to the United States to attend college at Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at Catapult and lives in New York City. A Burning is her first book.

Book metadata

Marketplace observations

74 live copies of this book from $3.88 (as of 2026-09-09).

Contributors

Community tags

Inferred themes

Machine-inferred from catalog text. Not verified subjects.

Stored catalog notes

Community signals

Have: 14 · Like: 4 · Rating: 3.2 / 5 (6)