Burning

If I am stuck with finding fiction books to read, the first and most sensible way is crowdsourcing. A pretty good source is looking up the book recommendation from The New York Times. That's how I come to hear about Megha Majumdar.

No single word better expresses the essence of what makes her debut novel a powerful one than "Burning." No less important is the way Majumdar entitles the book A Burning.

One of the main characters, Jivan, was accused of sedition in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a railway station. A few nights after she posted a careless comment on Facebook, she was dragged up in her nightie by the police. The next morning, at the courthouse, Jivan was told by the judge the list of charges against her.

"Crime against the nation," he said. "Sedition." (Call me a coward if you will; I dare not cite Jivan’s anti-government Facebook post here.)

No more than a few hours after Jivan was arrested, she was transported from temporary lockup to the prison. I could imagine the scene she cried, my own eyes dry and throat burning. Of course, you'd read more burning stories behind bars. Take Americandi, her cellmate. She pushed a man who was trying to snatch her necklace but then fell, struck his head on the pavement and became comatose. That's how Americandi ended up in jail.

As I read on, I heard and saw more burning of scapegoats, or maybe I imagined it. Maybe.