Although the chapters are short, the author succeeds in her portrayals of the main characters. I found myself deeply invested in all three. But I found the story so depressingly familiar that I'm not sure I can recommend it. Proceed with caution.

Didn't finish.

In the beginning moments of this novel, terrorists set fire to a train in modern India. Jivan, a young woman, later posts about it on Facebook, equating police inaction to government terrorism. In the middle of the night, she is arrested. PT Sir was Jivan’s P.E. teacher before she dropped out of school after 10th grade. Unappreciated and power-hungry, he eventually finds himself in the inner circle of the government’s opposition party nearing an election. Lovely is a hijra, a transgender woman and a member of a community of trans and intersex people. She’s a talented actress on the hunt for her breakout role, and she’s learning English from Jivan to become more marketable. The three characters collide amid Jivan’s trial.

Wonderfully read by a full cast, Megha Majumdar’s A Burning is especially relevant in the age of highly-politicized social media and government extremism.

This story-driven novel reads like a classic. Three characters from an Indian slum are followed as their lives change and their moral integrity is challenged.

Recommended by Washington Post. Social media post results in a woman being labeled a terrorist

A simple story with profound implications. A young girl brought up struggling in poverty is jailed for a crime she didn't commit. Those who had a place in her life chose money and fame through deception of truth. Throw in social media influence, divergent economic status, and gender identity and you have an intensely compelling story.

This is an overtly political book about inequality and subjugation of the Muslim minority by the Hindus in power in India. It tells the story through the lives of four different characters. There is a lot of heartache and suffering in this book, and it was a powerful experience to read it now when our own country is also suffering with political and cultural divisions. Perhaps we can learn ways to solve our problems through art such as this book that shines a light on problems in other countries, as well as our own.

Short and depressing, but I fear a very honest look at politics and justice in India. One good thing about 2020 is that it is filled with outstanding debut novels. Picked by Jenna Bush Hager as her June book club pick. I read it as America protests the George Floyd killing, its an interesting contrast to the arrest of an innocent Muslim girl implicated in the burning of a train by a terrorist group. Following three people—the girl, her P.E teacher and a transvestite who the girl was helping to learn English, you know the girl is doomed, but you keep hoping. This story is short, and to say more about the plot would ruin the book. Bush Hager did an excellent job picking book for this month.