Guardian and a Thief | 
pickSomehow, this book manages to be both a really great story but also one that sets out to pose moral conundrums, almost guaranteeing readers will place themselves in the shoes of the guardian and the thief. BUT: which character is which? Aren‘t we all at times the guardian and others the thief. Or even in the same moment, depending on the perspective of who‘s being guarded/stolen from? Near future India, climate ravaged—the perfect setting. Great!
pickThis book has one of those endings that I will be thinking about for a long time to come. It is BRUTAL!
In similar circumstances I‘m sure that everyone would behave in ways that don‘t always aline with our values when desperately trying to do what‘s best for our loved ones, trying to survive. This book highlights that there is good and bad in most people and a fine line between right and wrong. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickI. Am. Gutted. …It is impossible for me to disparage any decision of Ma, Dadu, or Boomba because the world in the near future is so devoid of compassion for our neighbors. This is an important story.
pickIn times of famine everyone with a family becomes a guardian and a thief. That‘s what this book shows the reader by setting a story in a near future India, where Ma is trying to get her father and daughter on a plane to the US while Boomba is trying to take care of his family. It‘s a sad and harsh read and it feels awfully plausible.
#ReadTheWorld2025 #33 #India
📸 Awaji Island, Japan
pickWe‘re in dirt poor Kolkata, where we follow the parallel lives of Ma, her father and daughter who are trying to get to America to join her husband. And also Boomba, a thief who is trying to support himself and bring his family to him. This is a very tough read. Will Ma get to America? Will Boomba survive? A heart-wrenching slice of life of people constantly living on the verge. One can only imagine being this poor and hungry all the time.
pickThis author‘s first book didn‘t quite work for me, but her follow up is superb. Following a small family across a week in Kolkata during significant food shortages, it looks at human depth and how we all carry both guardian and thief within ourselves. It is a literary read with the propulsive pacing of a thriller. It would be a very worthy winner of the National Book Award.
#NBAshortlist, fiction
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #arc
Out 10/14/25
Majumdar's newest novel was so intense, I had physical reactions while reading it. This story is about love and family, but told in such a way that it raises so many questions within you, one of the main being: Who is more worthy?
Your perception will constantly be shifting while reading this, and you will be forced to ask yourself some questions that might be uncomfortable.
👇🏽
pickYikes. This was rough.
For the question: Who is the Guardian?
Yourself
Who is the Thief?
Yourself
It's all by circumstances & circumstances change, given your need.
Are you willing to do what you need to survive?
Are you willing to lie to yourself about that?
It's always about the survival of yourself & those you hold close.
Judge not...Etc etc.
pickA difficult to book to read. Set in a very near future Kolkata where the heat and floods have led to poverty, many residents are emigrating to the US on climate visas.
Ma is one of those and, along with her father and 2 year old daughter she has just obtained their passports to join her husband in the US, when her bag is stolen.
Life gets worse and worse as they mount a desperate search for the thief - a very dark book but also unputdownable.
This book is so intense that I‘m having physical reactions while reading it. I step away for a bit and come back to it because I can‘t put it down. #arc
