At once horrifying and beautiful. A masterwork.
Feature image credit: Simon & Schuster
A household in Kolkata: Ma, her two-year-old daughter Mishti, and her beloved, elderly father, Dadu. Ma’s husband has moved to the United States to escape the climatic disasters plaguing India. Ma, Dadu, and Mishti will join him in a week’s time, now that they finally have their passports and their all-important Climate visas. Dadu has mixed feelings, wanting to save his daughter and granddaughter from starvation, heat-stroke, and the horrors of living in an India that is victim to global warming. But Kolkata is his home, and always has been. A few days before they are to fly out, their passports are stolen. And so begins a trek around the people and places of a ravaged, once proud, city, in search of stolen documents.
A Guardian and a Thief is the second book by young Indian-American writer Megha Majumdar. Her first book, A Burning, garnered critical acclaim, and was nominated for several prestigious literary awards.
Majumdar is a gifted writer. She has crafted a story at once simple and complex. There are echoes of De Sica’s classic film Bicycle Thieves. In both stories a family tries to find vital stolen goods through a ravaged, once wonderful, city. Foundational to both these stories is the sense of displacement from what was once home. Climate change displaces humanity in general from its home, and in Majumdar’s Kolkata of the near-future, it has caused food shortages, economic disaster, and myriad health issues.
Ma and Dadu are beautifully drawn characters. Even little Mishti, who is only two, has a strong sense of character that jumps off the page with details such as her referring to cauliflower as ‘flower flower.’ The third major character, Boomba, is less instantly sympathetic, especially as we are introduced to him as the thief of the passports. But Majumdar gradually allows us to see more of him as a person, and also to see his crimes in a more socio-economic framework. This in turn gives us pause to question the morality of Ma and Dadu, and the morality of humanity in general. When adversity hits, will we become selfish and cruel, or will we maintain some compassion for others?
Ultimately in this novel there are no obvious goodies or baddies (except maybe the city’s one remaining billionaire!). This work asks questions without feeding us the answers. After all, these are the questions we must all find answers to as individual nations, and as a planet.
But don’t let the heaviness of the foundational issue distract from the heart of this story, which is an exploration of human morality, of family, of love and loyalty, and of the meaning of home. It is also a rollicking, nail-biting tale.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Simon & Schuster
Released: October 2025
RRP: $29.99
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