A Burning follows the lives of three characters—Jivan, Lovely, and PT Sir—tracking what happens to them in the wake of a terrorist attack on a train in a slum in Kolkata, India. After posting something questioning the government on Facebook, Jivan is implicated from the murder. Her past is twisted to fit the narrative the government wants: a young girl from the slums who has been radicalized.

A Burning is a story of class and religious conflict, of what people will do to make their way in the world. Lovely, a transwoman to whom Jivan was teaching English, and PT Sir, Jivan’s physical education teacher, both make selfish and selfless choices throughout the story that impact Jivan’s life as well as others.

I really appreciated the portraits of each character and the ways in which Majumdar used them to explore different facets of life in Kolkata and the themes of her book. The narrative style changes depending on the POV, making them into three distinct voices in the story. I was sucked in for the first half of the book, wanting to uncover what exactly happened the night of the attack. But the second half left me disappointed in many ways. The storytelling and characters here are spectacular; I just think I wasn’t in the right headspace for that ending.