A Guardian and a Thief

‘An indictment of this moment and a timeless parable about the lengths we go to for love and self-preservation, written in exuberant prose - this is a novel that will burrow its way into your soul and remain there forever.’ Tahmima Anam ‘Gripping… [It] is an impressive novel. Pages suffused with ambient menace also accommodate tenderness’ Spectator ‘Majumdar evades the narrative clunkiness that inevitably attends attempts to explain India to the west. This frees her up not only to tell a story of universal moral interest, but also to deliver a perceptive account of specifically Indian anxieties.… A Guardian and a Thief dramatises, to superb effect, the Indian elite’s great fear: a world in which they are forced to share.’ Guardian ‘Nothing goes to plan in this ­propulsive black farce which ­combines ­vertiginous plot twists and a persuasive doomy atmosphere with a terrific spin on the moral hypocrisy of the Indian middle classes.’ Daily Mail ‘A piercing and empathetic examination of the moral complexities of survival and how love can blur the lines between right and wrong in the face of disaster’ TIME ‘I read this book with my heart in my throat. There are no clear-cut winners or losers here, just a powerful story of the incredible lengths people will go to protect their loved ones. I would love to see it win awards’ Book of the Month, Red Magazine ‘A true literary achievement… Majumdar creates a tense and deeply compassionate portrait of desperation, fear and the combined selflessness and selfishness of parenthood… Detail is the strongest thing in A Guardian and a Thief. It conveys the nuances of not only love but also wisdom… a true joy to read.’ New York Times ‘A mesmerizing morality play that demonstrates how categories like ‘victim’ and ‘thief’ collapse under conditions of scarcity.’ Atlantic ‘An unputdownable, searing morality tale’ Boston Globe ‘[A Guardian and a Thief] is a perfect novel: 200 pages of tightly honed panic about life in a collapsing society… . The book’s simple structure feels reminiscent of a fairy tale, which helps account for the deep, visceral terror the story generates.’ Washington Post ‘Adroitly plotted… . Majumdar’s unstintingly graceful political novel has the grip of a nail-biter.’ The New Yorker ‘A Guardian and a Thief is an achievement. It deserves praise. It deserves study. It deserves to be read, and sat with, and thought about… . The craft of this novel is something approaching immaculate.’ Pittsburgh Post Gazette ‘Tightly plotted and emotionally vivid.’ New York Magazine ‘A beguilingly simple tale. A complicated morality play. A sensitive evocation of time… . [A Guardian and a Thief] is a contemporary classic.’ Minnesota Star Tribune ‘Prescient… . Tightly plotted… . Majumdar’s novel makes chillingly real the law of the world.’ Foreign Policy ‘[A Guardian and a Thief] is a tense, emotional thriller written with a poet’s knack for finding the right images to set your brain on fire.’ Esquire ‘Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating.’ Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life ‘Devastatingly powerful… . With this incredible story, Majumdar has given us something precious: truth.’ BookPage (starred review) ‘An electrifying depiction of dignity and morality under siege… . With gorgeous writing and the pacing of a thriller, A Guardian and a Thief transports the reader to a world ravaged by drought, burning heat, and severe food scarcity… . The way Majumdar manages to connect all the storylines with a resolution that unfolds both globally and in one small living room is genius.’ Kirkus (starred review) ‘Luminous… . Majumdar conjures a city at once deteriorating and resilient, where markets sell seaweed and synthetic fish, and the city’s ‘remaining benevolent billionaire’ lives on a heavily guarded man-made island in a widening river… . There’s no clear-cut villain here, just people attempting to survive and protect their own. Majumdar proves once again that she is a master of the moral dilemma.’ Publishers Weekly (starred review) ‘Majumdar brilliantly blurs right and wrong, ethics and legality… . [An] exquisitely wrenching novel.’ Booklist (starred review) ‘Excellent […] propulsive […] terrific’ Daily Mail

Megha Majumdar is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel A Burning, which was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal. It was named one of the best books of the year by media including the Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, Atlantic, Vogue, and TIME Magazine. A 2022 Whiting Award winner, she was born and raised in Kolkata, India, and holds degrees in anthropology from Harvard and Johns Hopkins. She is the former editor in chief of Catapult books, and lives in New York.