Megha

Majumdar

Oprah’s Book Club Pick Author

Award-Winning Novelist

Travels from: New York, NY

“Adroitly plotted. . . . Majumdar’s unstintingly graceful political novel has the grip of a nail-biter.” — The New Yorker

Megha Majumdar is the author of the novel A Guardian and a Thief, which is an Oprah’s Book Club pick, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award, and the winner of the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. A Guardian and a Thief is also a New York Times notable book, a Washington Post notable book, and one of the ten best books of the year per The Atlantic and TIME Magazine.

Her first book, the New York Times bestselling novel A Burning, was a TODAY Show Read With Jenna book club pick and a National Book Award nominee, among other honors.

She is the recipient of a Whiting Award, and her work has been supported by the Civitella Ranieri and Hawthornden foundations. Born and raised in Kolkata, India, she now lives in New York.

Megha's Featured Titles

A Guardian and a Thief

Knopf |

October 14, 2025

Literary Fiction

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE • Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning, is set in a near-future Kolkata, India in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other. A piercing and propulsive tour de force.

“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go.”—Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life

NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, THE ATLANTIC, TIME, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, ELLE, TOWN & COUNTRY, KIRKUS, BOOKPAGE

In a near-future Kolkata, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen.

Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.

A masterful new work from one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage, BIPOC Representation, Celebrity Book Club Pick, Fiction, Food Sovereignty & Security, Grief & Loss, Immigrant & Refugee Perspectives

A Burning

Knopf |

June 2, 2020

Literary Fiction

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK! • A “gripping thriller with compassionate social commentary” (USA Today) about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise—to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies—and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India.

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan’s fall. Lovely—an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor—has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.

Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning is an electrifying debut.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage, Celebrity Book Club Pick, Fiction, Mystery & Thriller

Writing and Researching A Guardian and a Thief

In this talk, Megha Majumdar delves into the writing and research process for her second novel A Guardian and a Thief. She brings audiences along with her as she discusses what led her to create these characters, how she envisioned the near-future world they inhabit, and the importance of telling this story now.

Writing Fiction about Climate Change

Megha Majumdar is a powerful advocate for fiction’s capacity to confront the issues of climate change. In this lecture, Majumdar discusses how she has engaged with climate change through her new novel, her personal experiences in both her native and adoptive homes that have inspired her, and the role she feels that fiction can play in drawing attention to this vitally important threat facing people around the world.

Plot and Storytelling for Writers

As both a novelist and a former editor at Catapult, where she acquired literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, Megha Majumdar is intimately familiar with the work of storytelling. In a talk that offers craft reflections for aspiring and emerging writers, Majumdar discusses the process of developing a propulsive, fierce, and entertaining plot.

Nurturing a Creative Life

In this talk, Megha Majumdar addresses those who wish to develop a creative practice or simply live with the habits of a creative life. With reflections on paying attention to the world around us, transcending our daily responsibilities to engage bigger questions, and using our time in meaningful ways, this talk offers encouragement and motivation to aspiring writers and non-writers alike.

Right and Wrong: Living a Moral Life

In both her novels, A Burning and A Guardian and a Thief, Megha Majumdar takes on questions of moral life. She has been called “a master of the moral dilemma” (Publishers Weekly). In this talk addressing those who wish to consider what it means to live a moral life today, Majumdar discusses her obsession with the question of moral life in the current world.

“Thank you so much for all your work to make Megha’s visit happen. She was wonderful — ideal, really. Her talk this morning was terrific, and her work with students last night and this afternoon was truly special. I’m so appreciative when a visiting writer is as kind as Megha was and so deeply and genuinely attentive to our students. Everyone who worked with her felt honored by how seriously she took them and how carefully she listened to them and heard their work. Everyone appreciated her novel, her engagement with social issues, and her generosity of spirit. I hope we can look forward to having her back again in the future.” — Hathaway Brown School

“The conversation with Megha was terrific. She was a delight—thoughtful, generous in her responses. We especially appreciated that while engaging with the interlocutor she also spoke directly to the students who were watching.” — Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University

“All of the events with Megha went beautifully– she is so thoughtful and generous!” — University of Michigan, Helen Zell Writers’ Program

“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 . . . it also makes this novel, wrenching though it often is, a true joy to read.” —The New York Times Book Review

“[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.” — The Washington Post

“A Guardian and a Thief is a literary gem with the pace of a thriller.” — USA Today

“Adroitly plotted. . . . Majumdar’s unstintingly graceful political novel has the grip of a nail-biter.” — The New Yorker

“A mesmerizing morality play that demonstrates how categories like ‘victim’ and ‘thief’ collapse under conditions of scarcity.” — The Atlantic

“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 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

“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

Megha’s Events

Honors, Awards & Recognition

A Guardian and a Thief:
Oprah’s Book Club pick
National Book Award finalist
Kirkus Prize finalist
American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal Winner
National bestseller

A Burning:
TODAY Show Read With Jenna pick
National Book Award longlist
New York Times bestseller

Whiting Award winner