MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT: Megha Majumdar calls to mind Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie in her ability to capture the contours of modern India, and although her novel is a work of stunning economy it has the force of an epic tragedy. A magnificent beginning to what promises to be a major career.

EFFORTLESS STORYTELLING:A Burning is a true literary page-turner, a taut, plot-driven, symphonic novel that leaves the reader breathless.

SUBJECT: Political upheaval, domestic terrorism, identity politics, the rise of nationalism, and the sinister, combustive influence of social media—the novel speaks directly to the world we live in today.

STRONG PUBLISHING PARTNER: We will publish alongside Knopf in the U.S. who aggressively pre-empted this novel.

MEGHA MAJUMDAR is Associate Editor at Catapult in New York City, where she works on both books and the magazine (catapult.co). She grew up in India, and studied anthropology at Johns Hopkins and Harvard. She lives in Brooklyn.

Author Residence: Brooklyn, NY

One of Time's Must-Read Books of 2020

One of the most anticipated books of the summer by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, O, Elle, The Millions, Lit Hub

"Riveting. . . . This is a novel of our pandemic times, an exploration of precarity in all its forms. . . . Majumdar excels at depicting the workings of power on the powerless. . . . Fate has rarely been so many-faced, so muscular, so mercurial, so mesmerizing as it is in A Burning." —New York Times Book Review

"Powerful . . . propulsive. . . . This is a book to relish for its details, for the caress of the writer's gaze against the world. . . . The interplay of choice and circumstance has always been the playing field of great fiction, and on this terrain, a powerful new writer stakes her claim." —Parul Sehgal, New York Times

"The must-read novel of the summer. . . . Megha Majumdar's debute novel, A Burning, is aptly named. This all-consuming story rages along, bright and scalding, illuminating three intertwined lives in contemporary India. Majumdar . . . 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 . . . Majumdar's outrage is matched only by her sympathy for these ordinary people . . . . A damning critique of a culture that generates constant upheaval but no systemic change." —Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Immersive . . . masterly . . . the elements of a thriller are transmuted into prismatic portraiture. . . . A Burning has a similar urgency of appeal [to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying]. Its characters are the very front of the stage, and we can feel their breath. . . . Her spare plot moves with arrowlike determination. —James Wood, The New Yorker

"Powerful . . . a gripping thriller with compassionate social commentary. . . . It's hard not to feel intense heartache while reading A Burning. Majumdar's powerful debut is carefully crafted for maximum impact, carving out the most urgent parts of its characters for the whole world to see. This novel rightfully commands attention." —USA Today

"A Burning by Megha Majumdar is quietly beautiful and devastating. Its tone and pacing are measured perfectly. It is as funny as it is sad. This book won't let you go, and you won't want it to end." —Tommy Orange

"In her captivating debut novel A Burning, Megha Majumdar presents a powerful corrective to the politcal correvtive to the political narratives that have dominated in contemporary India." —Time

"Propulsive . . . ambitious . . . beautiful and supple . . . heartbreaking." —Boston Globe

“A Burning is an excellently crafted, utterly thrilling novel full of characters that I won’t soon forget. Megha Majumdar writes about the ripple effects of our choices, the interconnectedness of our humanity, with striking beauty and clarity. A stunning debut.”
—Yaa Gyasi

“This is a novel of now: a beautifully constructed literary thriller from a rare and powerful new voice.”
—Colum McCann