num_pages: 304
description: For readers of Tommy Orange Yaa Gyasi and Jhumpa Lahiri an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to riseto the middle class to political power to fame in the moviesand 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.
language: English
title: A Burning
publisher: Knopf Publishing Group