A Guardian and a Thief

From Megha Majumdar, the acclaimed author of A Burning, longlisted for the National Book Award, comes a gripping new novel set in a near-future Kolkata, India—a city ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, where two families’ fierce love for their children sets them on a collision course.

Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are preparing to leave the crumbling city for Ann Arbor, Michigan, joining Ma’s husband after finally securing their visas. But on the morning of their departure, disaster strikes: Ma’s purse, containing the family’s precious immigration documents, has been stolen.

Set over the course of a single week, A Guardian and a Thief alternates between Ma’s desperate search for the missing purse amid worsening hunger and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose mounting acts of crime are driven by his own family’s urgent needs. Megha Majumdar masterfully intertwines their journeys, portraying two families bound by relentless love, unyielding hope, and the lengths they will go to secure their children’s future in a world teetering on the brink.

A piercing, propulsive novel from one of the most electrifying voices of her generation.