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A Burning

Megha Majumdar (Goodreads Author)

3.74 · Rating details · 43,086 ratings · 5,362 reviews

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 e ...more

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Published June 15th 2020 (first published June 2nd 2020)

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Nov 09, 2020 Roxane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really liked this story. I wondered if the political ambition overshadowed the power of the prose.

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Mar 23, 2020 chai ♡ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-releases, fiction, adult, adult-lit, adult-contemporary, muslim-rep, own-voices, bipoc-rep, arc, read-in-2020

✧ find this review & others on my blog ✧

At the start of Majumdar’s standout debut novel, Jivan, a young Muslim woman, makes a Facebook post that takes a jab at the government’s handling of a train bombing in Bengal. Someone hastens to whisper of it, and Jivan lands in a prison cell, charged with the attack before night finishes falling. Everyone, suddenly, had known her, everyone had heard her speak ill of her country, everyone had seen her in the train station; everyone is deranged with ang ...more

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Jan 01, 2021 Thomas rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, realistic-fiction

Wow, what a powerful novel with an important message. A Burning follows Jivan, a Muslim girl who is accused of executing a terrorist attack based on a Facebook comment she made. Her fate ends up resting in the hands of PT Sir, a self-serving gym teacher who tries to climb the ranks of a ring-wing political party, and Lovely, a hopeful outcast whose acting and singing ambitions imbue the novel with some sense of warmth. The story spirals at a quick pace after the initial accusation against Jivan, Wow, what a powerful novel with an important message. A Burning follows Jivan, a Muslim girl who is accused of executing a terrorist attack based on a Facebook comment she made. Her fate ends up resting in the hands of PT Sir, a self-serving gym teacher who tries to climb the ranks of a ring-wing political party, and Lovely, a hopeful outcast whose acting and singing ambitions imbue the novel with some sense of warmth. The story spirals at a quick pace after the initial accusation against Jivan, as we are left to see whether justice will prevail or if Jivan will suffer due to inequities beyond her individual control.

I think The Burning makes an excellent political statement. Through PT Sir and Lovely’s perspectives, we see how people betray their own values and basic human compassion to advance their own livelihoods and careers. Though this book is set in India, the themes of class inequity political corruption apply in many other settings too. As Caroline Tew states eloquently in her review (which contains spoilers for the plot) Megha Majumdar does an excellent job of showing how marginalized groups will betray one another to advance and gain power in an overall discriminatory system. As someone who lives in the United States, this theme reminded me a lot of Asian Americans who try to gain power and appeal to whiteness instead of showing solidarity with other marginalized racial/ethnic groups, affluent white women who prioritize class advancement and individual empowerment over solidarity with women of color and women of lower socioeconomic status, etc.

The only reason I give the novel a lower rating of 3.5 stars is because of my subjective enjoyment of it. The Burning does a 5-star job of relaying its political message, without a doubt. While I felt sad and angry for Jivan, I didn’t really connect with the characters overall, in part because I perceived them as vehicles for Majumdar’s overall political statement. Other reviewers have described the novel as hopeless which perhaps it is, though I think for some people hope really is a privilege and we with more power have to actively create the conditions where hope may shine through. Overall, while I didn’t connect much with the characters – which I generally prioritize in my book ratings – I have huge respect for Majumdar’s mission with this novel and I am glad it’s getting its fair share of publicity. ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Lisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

[3.3] A Burning is a raging novel with a plot and characters there mainly to serve its point about injustice and corruption in modern India. Unlike most reviewers, I was disappointed. I found it disturbing... but thin. Actually, although lacking as a novel, I think it would make an excellent play.

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Jun 09, 2020 Fuzzydice108 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: book-of-the-month-club, hardcover, mine

When I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to make it a Book of the Month Club pick. I felt like this could be a story that I’ll really enjoy.

That was not the case. The whole story seemed to have a disorient cloud shrouding every chapter. The writing was extremely choppy and disconnected. It was painfully lacking detail, and I felt like I was only reading bits and pieces of a full story.

The characters’ lives didn’t really intertwine as described by the synopsis, in fact they seemed to h ...more

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Feb 13, 2020 Jill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It all starts simply enough—an idealistic young Muslim girl uses her very first costly device with her own salary, a SmartPhone, to join in the conversation on Facebook. A vicious train attack by terrorists has just taken place and right afterwards, she posts an ill-advised comment.

With that propulsive opening, A Burning ignites a firestorm that asks searing questions: “Whose future is it? How far are we willing to go to take our place into a better life—be it political status, artistic fame, or ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Barbara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, crime-mystery, historical-fiction, audio

“A Burning” by Megha Majumdar is an illuminating story of India’s politics and social oppression and discriminations. In her work, she shows how Hindu nationalism is similar to white supremacy.

The novel has three narrators, each a part of oppression. Jivan, is a poor Muslim girl living in the slums, who has dreams of becoming middle class. Lovely is a hijra (a recognized gender in India that is nether male or female) who dreams of being an actress. Jivan taught Lovely English so she could better ...more

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Jan 25, 2021 mwana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, favorites-2021, literary, lgbtqiap

I finished this book and I am left wondering at the helplessness and powerlessness of my existence. I am staring at it, splayed open on the page where the story abruptly ends and the acknowledgements suddenly start-- I'm done now here are the people to thank for my publishing. How does it not realise how much it affected me? But can we also take a moment to admire that beautiful cover.

A Burning is an ambitious masterpiece that covers a lot of sociopolitical commentary from trans rights to Hindu ...more

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Jun 25, 2020 Seemita rated it liked it

Recommended to Seemita by: Twitter

Shelves: asia, culture, debut, drama, family, fiction, india, monologue, politics, sharp_sword

[A throbbing 3.5 stars.]

Words. I know they are potent; they can bind and heal, rejuvenate and transform. But, I also know, in equal measure, they can kill.

In ‘A Burning’, just a pale black string of words on a social media page makes a young Muslim girl, an enemy of the state, and takes her to the darks she had not felt even in the darkest corner of her dingy, tarp-roofed house in a Kolkata slum. A comment is all it takes for the 22 years of her life to be wiped clean off the slate with the pow [A throbbing 3.5 stars.]

Words. I know they are potent; they can bind and heal, rejuvenate and transform. But, I also know, in equal measure, they can kill.

In ‘A Burning’, just a pale black string of words on a social media page makes a young Muslim girl, an enemy of the state, and takes her to the darks she had not felt even in the darkest corner of her dingy, tarp-roofed house in a Kolkata slum. A comment is all it takes for the 22 years of her life to be wiped clean off the slate with the powerful duster of sedition.

Keeping Jivan (which, ironically, means life) at the centre, the author draws two more characters, one each on the opposite side of the protagonist. Lovely, a transgender and PT Sir, a school teacher. Neither have a swell resume to grab a berth in the first row of life but they are trying hard. And when both are called to testify in Jivan vs The State case, they take opposite stands and see their destinies unspool in an entirely different air.

An undercurrent of urgency keeps the book going, as if slackening the pace might make the reader look away from the plight of Jivan. Her no-nonsense account of her life in the prison gingerly pricks like that rough, ordinary stone that continues to give scratches on rub until its edges are all blunt and toothless. That even a prison is not without its hierarchies, the press is not without its politics and the court is not without its masters is deftly pinned all over the body of the book, making it bear a look of the haggard, drooping a little every day. Imparting a shining white to Lovely’s and PT Sir’s dreams by snatching it from Jivan’s many skies turns this work into a window into the times we live in - freedom of speech and privacy being routinely sacrificed at the altar of majoritarianism and religious fanaticism.

’The light alerts me when morning comes. Now that I know it is morning, I practice the yoga I learned long ago, on rainy days in school. But my body is reluctant. It adheres, like a block of concrete, to the floor. There is noting supple in my arms. They are twigs, waiting to snap. When I look down, my legs are dry and scaly, white with skin that is neither alive nor willing to shed.’

The pages of the register at the morgue flutter. But life goes on. And in between this space, words lie, bidding their time. ...more

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Jun 15, 2020 Ron Charles rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Megha Majumdar’s debut novel, “A Burning,” is aptly named. This all-consuming story rages along, bright and scalding, illuminating three intertwined lives in contemporary India. Majumdar, who was raised in West Bengal before attending Harvard University and moving to New York, demonstrates an uncanny ability to capture the vast scope of a tumultuous society by attending to the hopes and fears of people living on the margins. The effect is transporting, often thrilling, finally harrowing. It’s no ...more

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Jun 20, 2020 Doug rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.5, rounded up.

Although compulsively readable (yay for short chapters!), with an interesting structure and plot, I came away a bit unsatisfied. I read a LOT of South Asian literature and am a huge Bollywood fan (my cats are even named Priyanka, Bipasha, Chandni and - may she rest in peace - Deepika), and this just seemed to be recycling things I had already read/seen, and felt somewhat simplistically pandering towards an American audience unfamiliar with India.

What I really liked was how each ...more

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Jun 15, 2020 Jennifer Blankfein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A Burning by Megha Majumdar reads like a thriller as we witness an innocent Indian girl accused of terrorism in the aftermath of suspicious subway fires. Jivan lives in the slums of India with her parents, goes to school, and teaches Lovely, a hijra (transgender woman) across tow, how to read English. Jivan happened to be riding the subway during the time of the fires and made a facebook post about it. After getting little response to her first post, she wrote another criticizing the police and
A Burning by Megha Majumdar reads like a thriller as we witness an innocent Indian girl accused of terrorism in the aftermath of suspicious subway fires. Jivan lives in the slums of India with her parents, goes to school, and teaches Lovely, a hijra (transgender woman) across tow, how to read English. Jivan happened to be riding the subway during the time of the fires and made a facebook post about it. After getting little response to her first post, she wrote another criticizing the police and the government. This comment caused a stir online, and in the middle of the night, Jivan is torn from her home and arrested, and thrown in jail as the only suspect for the criminal activity on the subway.

Jivan’s future is not bright and at every turn, she and her family suffer more. Her hope dwindles when she is put in solitary confinement underground, her father’s rickshaw is destroyed, her family home caves in and her father sustains terrible injuries. Jivan’s school gym teacher, PT Sir, at one time a mentor, believes she is innocent of the charges. Lovely, Jivan’s English student knows she is not capable of setting fires and murdering people. But PT Sir and Lovely are feeling luckier these days; their lives are on the upswing. PT Sir is being recognized in politics and he is feeling hopeful for his future. Lovely wants to become an actress and after posting videos she made online, her career is about to take off. In a last ditch effort, Jivan shares her story with a journalist hoping he will reveal her truth. All three have the power to alter the path of Jivan’s life, but will they speak up? The abuse of power, corruption and personal gain collide to determine Jivan’s future.

A Burning was an all absorbing, exceptional story, touching on politics, minorities, privilege and government resources along with morals and personal gain. Deep characters and a compelling storyline will stick in your mind long after the final pages. A must read this summer!
Visit Book Nation by Jen for more reviews and Author Q & A. https://booknationbyjen.com
...more

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Apr 24, 2021 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Megha Majumdar has a lot to say about class and corruption in her debut novel, “A Burning”.
It’s hard to review this book without giving anything away, but it’s a fast read that is written from the perspective of 3 different characters in present day India.

Sometimes I get caught up in so many of the problems we’re having in the US that I forget to zoom out and read about the issues that are going on all over the world. It turns out that the US hasn’t cornered the market on issues of class and ...more

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Jul 06, 2020 Lakshmi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: quiltbag

So this book was...underwhelming. Maybe it's because I was reading The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy, a truly phenomenal work, in parallel and I drew an unconscious unfair comparison. There are a lot of great reviews written by better people than me (which I'll link), so I'm going to keep mine short.

On the plus side, Megha Majumdar is a talented writer. The book is absorbing and not at all bad for a debut novel and there is no dearth of glowing hyperbolic reviews for A Burning. From intervie ...more

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Oct 18, 2020 Prerna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, indian, lgbtq

A Burning is a story of fiery agony - it outlines the plight of the marginalized in a country whose democratic power structures are being systematically redesigned to make way for majoritarian tyranny.

Jivan is a poor Muslim woman who lives in a dilapidated old house located in a slum. She works at a store in a nearby mall to make ends meet and support her family. While trying to wade through the dregs of society, she makes a single Facebook comment criticizing the government regarding their hand A Burning is a story of fiery agony - it outlines the plight of the marginalized in a country whose democratic power structures are being systematically redesigned to make way for majoritarian tyranny.

Jivan is a poor Muslim woman who lives in a dilapidated old house located in a slum. She works at a store in a nearby mall to make ends meet and support her family. While trying to wade through the dregs of society, she makes a single Facebook comment criticizing the government regarding their handling of a terrorist attack which puts her under the eye of public scrutiny.

And then, in the small, glowing screen, I wrote a foolish thing. I wrote a dangerous thing, a thing nobody like me should ever think, let alone write.
Forgive me, Ma.
If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean, I wrote on Facebook, that the government is also a terrorist?

Lovely, a transgender aspiring actor and PT sir, a school teacher bored with his middle class life and hoping to change the status quo by participating in far-right programs are key witnesses for the public trial against Jivan. However, the public, hungry for revenge, demands a scapegoat - a sacrificial lamb for slaughter. Lovely and PT sir make some personal choices concerning their own social standings that inadvertently and inevitably affect the case, while Jivan waits for justice helplessly in her prison cell.

While the book is very sharp in its socio-political commentary and is surely a very important piece of literature that brutally depicts the current worrisome state of sectarian politics in India that feeds on the marginalized of minority groups, it's clear to me that it was written for Western readers.

Even though it made me really anxious, (my heart aches for Jivan, I had to put the book down several times for extended periods because I knew it was going to end badly for her and I just couldn't stomach it) it was a very remarkable read.

3.5 stars.

MOTHER, DO YOU GRIEVE?
Know that I will return to you. I will be a flutter in the leaves above where you sit, cooking ruti on the stove. I will be the stray cloud which shields you from days of sun. I will be the thunder that wakes you before rain floods the room.
When you walk to market, I will return to you as footprint on the soil. At night, when you close your eyes, I will appear as impress on the bed. ...more

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Jan 03, 2021 Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021

Published in the UK today 21-1-21

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 us also a terrorist.

This impressive and (see below) much-hyped debut novel is set in Bengal – and opens in the voice of Jivan. Jivan is a young Muslim woman living in a Kolkota slum with her invalid Father (whose injuries started with a police beating after a forced eviction from a village above a mine) and her Mother. Jivan, who vi ...more

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Dec 04, 2019 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: edelweiss, may-2020-reads

"In politics, you will see, sometimes it feels that you are in charge of everything and everyone. But we can only guide them, inspire them. At the end of the day, are they our puppets? No. So what can we do if they raise their hand, if they decide to beat someone, if they feel angry?" PT Sir dislikes this justification. At the same time, he reaches desperately for the only relief he has felt since the massacre.

What an incredible debut. The writing in this was stunning and very, very moving. Timi "In politics, you will see, sometimes it feels that you are in charge of everything and everyone. But we can only guide them, inspire them. At the end of the day, are they our puppets? No. So what can we do if they raise their hand, if they decide to beat someone, if they feel angry?" PT Sir dislikes this justification. At the same time, he reaches desperately for the only relief he has felt since the massacre.

What an incredible debut. The writing in this was stunning and very, very moving. Timing will be important to some readers as this is not an uplifting read by any means. It is told from three points of view, Jivan (the accused terrorist), PT Sir (a PE teacher who stumbled into a job with a right wing political party) and Lovely (the spirited trans who aspires to be an actress and movie star). Jivan is the main character, but all three (and some peripheral characters) are connected to Jivan who has been accused of killing 100 of her Indian citizens all because of an ill timed Facebook post.

I feel this novel would have served me better had I more knowledge about life in India. Some of the terms were also lost on me and I found I had to look them up (which isn't a bad thing). However, those are really the only things I can "detract". What made this story so powerful was that it could have been set in any time, in any place in the world. I was almost moved a couple of times because I felt such deep despair at what these characters lived and went through. The story is heartbreaking in many ways, but powerful in the warning it provides to us all.

There is a pivotal moment for each character where there is a choice between right and wrong. The path PT Sir and Lovely choose is the one of least resistance. However, if they were to do the right thing, nothing would change in the end except their lives being as miserable as they always have been. That's a very depressing message, but one that should be heeded very closely.

Thank you to Knopf Publishing Group and Megha Majumdar for the advanced copy via Edelweiss! I will be sure to read everything this author writes in the future!

Review Date: 05/29/2020
Publication Date: 06/02/2020 ...more

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Jul 10, 2020 Carolyn Walsh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a powerful book that is short and concise but reads like an epic. I would have been happy if this novel were expanded to reveal more about the struggles facing the intriguing characters and the city in which they lived. This is a remarkably accomplished debut and I hope the author has plans for more books in the future. Told through the viewpoints of three fascinating and different people, what they have in common is a burning ambition to improve their lot in life in modern-day India.

J This is a powerful book that is short and concise but reads like an epic. I would have been happy if this novel were expanded to reveal more about the struggles facing the intriguing characters and the city in which they lived. This is a remarkably accomplished debut and I hope the author has plans for more books in the future. Told through the viewpoints of three fascinating and different people, what they have in common is a burning ambition to improve their lot in life in modern-day India.

Jivan is a Moslem girl living in extreme poverty in the slums. She desires to rise to a middle-class lifestyle. She is on her way having obtained a salaried position at a clothing store in the Mall. She is hardworking and helpful in her community. Fate intervenes when she is on her way to deliver a parcel of textbooks to a person she is helping learn English. She is observed near the train station during the time when there was a massive explosion on the train and numerous people died. Jivan had been entertaining herself posting on FaceBook and she wrote a comment disparaging the police. She was promptly arrested as the authorities needed someone to blame, and they decided her package of books contained incendiary devices. She had been messaging a young foreign man on FaceBook. The police regarded him as a terrorist recruiter. Jivan knew nothing of his beliefs and they only talked about mundane, everyday things. She is taken to prison and is awaiting trial for the deaths of about 100 people.

Lovely is a hijra, belonging to a group born male but living as females, and now recognized as a third sex. The group makes a meagre living by providing blessings, songs and dance to new parents and at wedding parties. They occasionally have to resort to begging on the street and on trains. Lovely has dreams of becoming an actress. To reach these goals she has been learning English from Jivan and taking drama lessons. She could be a positive witness for Jivan and provide an alibi.

PT Sir works as a physical education teacher at a girls' school He is befriended by chance by members of the right-wing opposition group. He is ambitious and rises quickly in politics. He is paid to attend court pretending to be a witness against those unlucky people charged with crimes. He once taught Jivan and thought she had a future as a talented athlete. At school, she was ragged and hungry, and he shared lunches with her. He resented that she left school without saying goodbye or thanking him.

The story encompasses themes of class, political corruption, injustice, religious intolerance, and betrayal. It touches on how internet media and false news can contribute to one's fame or doom.
Will Lively or PT Sir provide testimony to save Jivan while putting aside their own ambitions and dreams? ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Trudie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: timeout-bookclub

About halfway through this debut novel set in Kolkata, I was pretty sure I was going to set it aside.

It was only the knowledge of an impending book club discussion that kept me on track to finish it. That is rather a sad state of affairs for what is a fairly short, easily read novel. I surveyed all the glowing reviews and respect that both James Wood in The New Yorker and Parul Sehgal in The New York Times cannot both be wrong. However, this simply did not land for me.

After spending the better ...more

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Jun 20, 2020 Paul Ataua rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I really wanted to like this book, but I pretty much ended up not liking much about it at all. The characters were uninspiring and uninteresting, and the story telling was shallow. Others reviewers seemed to have loved it. Go figure!

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May 11, 2020 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Jivan is not a terrorist. However, this does not stop the Indian government arresting her for a vicious act of terrorism at a train station near her home. Their evidence against her? A Facebook comment and some private messages with a boy in a foreign country.

PT Sir is a teacher at one of the best schools for girls in the city. He feels insignificant and powerless until he accidentally becomes involved with personnel high up in a growing political party. He quickly becomes mixed up in shady pol ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Max rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: botm-pick, five-star-books-2020

I only dabble in literary fiction, and I couldn't be happier that I chose this as my BOTM.

There is one thing that I absolutely adored about this book, and that is how Megha Majumdar wrote is structurally. It's kind of like an anthology with all of the different viewpoints with an overarching theme with the plot of Jivan.

Here are the reasons it works so well:
1. Instead of having our imperfect-perfect first-person narration, the book works well in telling the first-person story but not having it i ...more

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Jun 07, 2020 Kasa Cotugno rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: culture-india, loc-asia-india-sri-lanka, subj-techno-danger, subj-terrorism, theme-collapse, author-visit

This is a novel of today, a searing portrait of a land of millions through the intertwined stories of three representative individuals, all with modest aspirations. Central to the proceedings is Jivan, a young woman of the slums providing support to her family and hoping for a promotion to manager in a shop in a mall. Her former phys ed teacher, only identified as P.I. Sir, had seen her potential as above that of the other girls in the privileged school where she was a sort of scholarship studen ...more

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May 27, 2020 Jenna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What a debut! This book packed a seriously powerful punch in such a short amount of time. While this is not the genre that I am typically drawn to, I really enjoyed this read.

What made this book unique was the very different voices of the three POV's. If I ever had to set the book down mid chapter, I very easily knew which character I was reading when I came back to the book. Their tones and personalities were easily perceptible through the writing, making this book about a heavy subject very re ...more

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Play Book Tag: A Burning by Megha Majumdar- 3 stars	5	13	Oct 28, 2021 12:04PM
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About Megha Majumdar

Megha Majumdar

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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. Follow her on Twitter @MeghaMaj and Instagram @megha.maj

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Quotes from A Burning

“Mother, do you grieve?
Know that I will return to you. I will be a flutter in the leaves above where you sit, cooking ruti on the stove. I will be the stray cloud which shields you from the days of sun. I will be the thunder that wakes you before rain floods the room.
When you walk to the market, I will return to you as footprint on the soil. At night, when you close your eyes, I will appear as impress on the bed.” — 26 likes

“If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean, I wrote on Facebook, that the government is also a terrorist?” — 18 likes

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