A Burning, the debut of Megha Majumdar, is a deftly executed political thriller with a beautifully drawn cast of characters.
The plot follows Jivan, Lovely and PT Sir through the events that follow a fatal terrorist attack on a train. In many ways, the book reminded me of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, in that it provides a snap-shot of the political situation of a country but also comments on something more eternal, something that is, seemingly, an intrinsic part of human nature, to hope of improving one's lot. Majumdar manipulates both her characters and us, the reader, to question whether one's progression in life is worth it if it means that another might be suffering because of it. This political message, however, is ever balanced with humorous observation and characterisation, it is an entertaining read as well as a thoughtful and, at times, heartbreaking one.
The book's narrative and its message feels so timely, yes, (for the little I know of the politics of it) in India, but definitely in other countries worldwide. I hope that the book resonates with many and that it gets the success it deserves all over the world.

This is a book with a lot to commend it, but also one I didn’t completely connect with. It tells the story of an election in India, through the inter-connected lives of three regular Indians - a young woman who finds her life turned upside down after she makes a post on Facebook critical of the government, an aspiring actress and a gym teacher.
It provides a fascinating view of life and politics in modern India, but I found that the story and characters failed to really grip me.

“I saw my mother then as a woman. I felt her humiliation. And where I had always felt shame, I now felt white-hot anger” – Megha Majumdar

Power. A word so often used that the depth of its meaning is no longer felt. An expression of authority. A privilege. Our downfall.

‘A Burning’ is the story of three characters: Jivan, Lovely, and PT Sir, whose fates were intertwined in the circumstance that changed their lives. Not that they didn’t know each other, but they pretended not to for the sake of theirs and their family’s well-being. But that’s how the world works, isn’t it? We mind our own business and look after our lives, without an iota of care for the lives that are being affected. Our civilization is built on this principle.

The book highlighted a fictional tale of true events that happen in India now and then. A person is guilty when the government and the people say they are, and not because of the truth. Broken foundations lead to the crumbling of even a grand structure; which is exactly what’s happening to our country. The book was well written, except for the fact that the grammar was changed for each person, making it seem like Lovely didn’t know English and Jivan knew very little; something that I did not appreciate. Other than that, the book was a masterpiece, nay a memoir, of some lost soul.

While not being especially plot driven, this novel explores corruption and justice in modern India through multiple POVs. It's a very promising debut from Majumdar. The voices of each POV character come through as distinct, which many seasoned authors struggle with. I found some of the prose gorgeous:

"He falls back into the delicious sleep of ten more minutes"
"All day rain drips and drops, and when it pauses for break, it is replaced by the false rain of fat water from ledges and leaves"

I especially enjoyed Lovely's sections, a Hijra training to be an actress. The section about her friend Raghi's operation I found to be completely harrowing but I liked how Lovely found strength from it.

Lovely is quite well realised as a character, but the other two POVs, Jivan and PT Sir, I found much less developed and compelling to read about. This was the main issue which prevented me from loving it more, but if you enjoy cultural fiction, I'd highly recommend this book.

I absolutely loved this book. No pun intended, but it was a slow burn that I couldn't put down. The writing was excellent, and I often found myself saving quotes and re-reading particularly poetic passages. This was a quietly powerful, incredibly moving read. Every character was so unique and interesting, and despite the heaviness of the overall story, I did find myself smiling and appreciating the ridiculousness of particular characters (PT Sir).

My only complaint is that it has been billed as a bit of a thriller, and I think many will be disappointed to find it a much slower, more intense read than your average "terrorist attack" story (I wish that wasn't a genre, but alas).

This novel is POWERFUL. I felt my heart in my mouth as it powered through to the climax, against the backdrop of lives that feel at times as fragile as glass: taken along by luck and chance, mercy or injustice, feeling largely predestined by the circumstance they were born into.

This is the story of a political change, as a right wing party clamour for power, to better those less fortunate in the country. But when some rise, others must fall.

Majumdar has such a direct voice. She shines through as each of the three protagonists of this novel, each believable in their stories, despite their discordance to one another at times. They all find themselves at different places in that intricate balance between what is and what is possible.

Jivan, with her poor roots, leaves school and strives to establish herself in her work and supporting her parents, with a sincere drive to better her position. The novel opens with her stating a powerful opinion on social media, and follows the aftermath as she is incarcerated for this.
"I could have been an ordinary person in the world. Ma, I could have gone to college.. This is what I have seen in the movies. Then I too would have given scraps of my meal to the stray dogs. I too would have had nostalgic corners of campus, corridor romances. I might have studied literature, and I might have spoken English so well that if you had met me on the street, Ma, you would not have known me! Ma, you would have thought I was a rich girl."

Coming to her defence is Lovely. Shunned by parents for being transgender, but finding home in a Hijra household, Lovely learns English from Jivan and aims for the stars, as an actress.
"My love for Azad, I am telling myself, is existing in some other world, where there is no society, no god. In this life we were never getting to know that other world, but I am sure it is existing. There, our love story is being written."

However, stung by a perceived ungratefulness from Jivan, her old teacher PT Sir, finds himself taking the stand against her. His is a story of a professional career, but longing for more, enchanted by the rising political party's promises.
"PT Sir walks down the road, feeling the protective wing of the party sheltering him. He opens his mouth and gulps air until a beggar looks at him strangely. The Muslim man’s family perished, nobody is denying that, but he himself will be all right. Maybe that is all that can be salvaged."

The voices here show the different sides of the spectrum: exploring morality, politics, ambition, integrity, the right to be heard. Each strives towards fulfilment, but their paths diverge and clear choices need to be made, sometimes forsaking others whose footing is as shaky as their own.

It feels a novel where everything hangs in the balance, but where a grinding certainty also presides. A powerful depiction of the time and place it is set, giving the reader a window into this.

Great writing, precise but full. There are some graphic moments, such as rape and descriptions of surgery, but Majumdar handles them with such sensitivity. The plot is simple, but so well driven and although a relatively short book, it certainly left me with that eerie feel of having been completely immersed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy.

A Burning is a novel about injustice, corruption, and the different ways three characters view events in India. In Kolkata, a terrorist train attack becomes viral news, and Jivan, a young Muslim girl living in the slums, posts on Facebook to complain about the police response. However, she was on the train platform that night, with an armful of books, and suddenly she is being accused of being part of the attack. Two people from her life—Lovely, a hijra trying to become a famous actress who Jivan was teaching English, and PT Sir, a teacher who once taught Jivan and finds himself involved in politics—become tied up in her trial and whether or not she'll be sentenced to death.

The novel unfolds by following the three main characters and how their lives change as they are caught up in the events, for better or for worse. The way sympathy is presented is really interesting, with Jivan obviously a sympathetic character caught up in a furore that makes her even less likely to get justice, but more complexity around the others, especially Lovely who just wants to make it as a star and be treated better, but standing up for Jivan might threaten that. It becomes clear that justice isn't simple, and that any justice system cannot claim to be looking solely at the facts when you have to take other people's lives and motivations into account. The political rise of PT Sir brings another dimension, thinking about nationalist politics and how people justify their actions to themselves even when morally suspect.

A Burning is a tense novel that leaves you with a real sense of injustice and the ways that class and position in society can deeply affect people's lives. It is a fast-paced read would probably work well adapted into a film, as the different narratives running through the book already feel like they cut between the main characters to really get across how they impact each other.

A Burning is an apt title for this book. It begins with hundreds dying in a blaze – but it’s more than that. The tension in this book simmers before eventually boiling over. At the start, I had sympathy and hope. By the end, I was just angry.

What I loved most about A Burning is how it throws all these questions of morality at you disguised as the way characters act, react and are treated. Questions like are we complicit in a crime if we stand back and say nothing?

It comes across as a bleak and brutal piece of fiction but it’s super important to recognise the dangers of social media and corruption. While I did thoroughly enjoy A Burning, I wouldn’t recommend it to readers who are sensitive to graphic violence. (There’s one scene in particular that I suspect will traumatise me forever.)

CW/TWs: Transphobia, sexual assault, murder, lynching, death by burning, death by hanging, graphic violence, surgery trauma

Three memorable characters get caught up in the story of a terrorist explosion on a train and highlight the injustices and corruption in society.
Which sounds a bit dry,when actually from Lovely especially I felt nothing but warmth.
An incredibly good debut,I look forward to seeing how it does.

Thank you to NetGalley for access to this story. I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the character development and the vivid descriptions. Struggled to workout the speaker of the chapter. Quick, enjoyable read.

This is a fascinating book, one that you read and feel like it will stick out in your memory as something you havent read before. Its split between three different characters, and i personally found Jivan the most enjoyable, the one i connected to and empathised with more. Connecting Lovely and PT Sir together was very clever, However i would have loved a more connecting ending that included Lovely. The fate of Jivan was heartbreaking and offered me to think deeply about why the book ended the way it did and what the meaning of this story is. I still dont know, but it has made me think, and to want to know more about Indian politics, so i can see this book in a different light.

The burning - Megha Majumdar

“If the police didn't help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean the government is also a terrorist? “ Jivan,the protagonist of “A burning”posted on facebook following a terror strike. And with it the ball is set rolling. Jivan is arrested for aiding and abetting terrorists. The story moves through Jivans past, narrated to a journalist and her present imprisonment. Also present in the novel are, Lovely, a transgender lady who is taught English by Jivan and a PT sir, who was Jivan’s teacher. The narrative weaves in and out of the lives of Lovely and PT sir along with Jivan.

And through the lives of these three people, the novel touches upon a myriad of social issues of present day India, from poverty and land acquisitions to transphobia and jingoist nationalism. The novel is unflinching in its gaze and does not shy away from addressing the faultlines.

Yet it feels vaguely voyeuristic. Personally I felt what the novel lacked was well developed interpersonal relationships, lack of which made it feel like a long string of atrocities stringed together.

But despite all this, A burning is a powerful and searing look at the life and times of present day India whose reality has become more bizzare and frightening than fiction.

<i>What can words do? Not very much.</i>

Well, I thought this was pretty incredible. I wanted to read this book because of the James Wood review in the New Yorker, and I was IMPRESSED. I read it in almost a single session, a testament to the book's energy and vibe. The voice, the pace, the details... it's all so wonderfully done. The themes - how to be a moral person, how to hold onto your self-respect in face of a society that tries to shame you, the rise of rightwing nationalism and how this connects to the exciting desire to belong, to feel part of something greater, to have control over your life - it's all executed very well. You can really tell that the author is an editor in her IRL job, and must have edited the shit out of this book to make it tight, tight, tight.

This is definitely the kind of book I would recommend to people in terms of 'this is how you can pull off a first-novel.' It reminded me of <i>Hurricane Season</i> in terms of its energy and readability.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.