A novel set in a near-future Kolkata, India, ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other.
Manages superbly (and efficiently) to be many things: A beguilingly simple tale. A complicated morality play. A sensitive evocation of a time ... Lots of novels twice as long have half as much heft ... Majumdar offers readers the rare sophomore novel that outshines her justly celebrated debut. It’s a contemporary classic.
Exquisitely wrenching ... Majumdar brilliantly blurs right and wrong, ethics and legality. In such frenzied times, who is the guardian and who is the thief can never be clear.
