A History of Burning

One family's search for a better life: an immersive, kaleidoscopic debut for fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, Homegoing and Pachinko

FOUR GENERATIONS. THREE SISTERS. ONE DIVIDED NATION.

India, 1898. Pirbhai is thirteen when he steps into a dhow on the vague promise of work. The voyage is long. He has no money, no voice, no power -- and will make impossible choices in the name of survival.

Sonal is fierce and loving, always willing to fight for what she believes in. When a young man called Pirbhai walks into her father's shop in Kenya, she knows he is part of her future. Together they set out for a new life in Uganda.

Their granddaughters, three sisters, come of age in a divided nation. Latika falls headlong into the student protest movement. Mayuri's ambitions will take her far from home. And fearless Kiya will have to carry the weight of her family's past.

Finally, parents, children and grandchildren will scatter across the world, fleeing the brutality of Idi Amin, forging new paths in London, marching for equality in 1990s Canada, searching for a safe mooring. But under everything lies a secret. And one day, a letter arrives that will fan its embers into a flame.

'Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury, A History of Burning is a towering debut by a phenomenal writer. A book I want to press into readers' hands and discuss for hours' Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING