OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST
FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE • Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel
following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning is set in a near-future Kolkata
India in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other. A
piercing and propulsive tour de force. “Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. ”—Stacy Schiff author of
Cleopatra: A Life NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES THE NEW YORKER THE
WASHINGTON POST NPR THE ATLANTIC TIME CHICAGO TRIBUNE NEW YORK MAGAZINE ELLE TOWN
& COUNTRY KIRKUS BOOKPAGE In a near-future Kolkata Ma her two-year-old daughter and her
elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in
Ann Arbor Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate they pack their
bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse
containing their treasured immigration documents has been stolen. Set over the course of one
week A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief
while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage and the story of Boomba the
thief whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating
crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command Megha Majumdar
paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families each operating from a place of ferocious love
and undefeated hope each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as
they stave off encroaching catastrophe. A masterful new work from one of the most exciting
voices of her generation.
