"A Burning" by Megha Majumdar

"A Burning" by Megha Majumdar is the June selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. Our main character is Jivan, an ambitious Muslim girl from an urban Indian slum who lives with her parents and works in a clothing store. At the train station one day, she witnesses a terrorist firebomb attack, in which 100 people die. A provocative, anti-government comment about the event on Facebook brings the authorities to her door:  she is dragged off to jail and accused of carrying out the attack herself.  

Two other characters' lives intertwine with Jivan's -- and with her fate -- in ways that become clearer as the story unfolds:  PT Sir, a phys ed teacher at a girls' school, who becomes involved in local politics, and Lovely, a hijra (a trans person who plays a spiritual role in Indian culture), who has been taking English lessons from Jivan and aspires to be an actress. 

I don't want to give away any more than that. 

This is not a book I would likely have picked up on my own. It's a short (a little more than 200 pages), and fast read, narrated in turn by Jivan, Lovely and PT Sir. It's very well written. It keeps you turning the pages, and it packs a powerful punch, especially near the end. 

I appreciated its merits. But I can't say I loved it. 

As a result, I struggled with how to rate this one. I settled on 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #15 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in May), bringing me to 33% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books."