A Guardian and a Thief, by Megha Majumdar
Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief is a taut, devastating tale of two families in a near-future India beset by unforgiving climate changes. It’s easily one of my favorite reads so far of 2026.
Sense of Dread
The story begins in Kolkata, where inhabitants are under siege from the heat and struggling to find food in a landscape decimated by weather events. Damaged crops and resultant food shortages are the norm, along with people displaced by rising flood waters. From the outset I felt a huge sense of dread, a feeling that never dissipated. This is a tight, well-constructed, slim novel of 200 pages, Majumdar’s second (A Burning came out in 2020).
Seven Days
Ma lives in a comfortable house with her daughter, two-year-old Mishti, and her retired father, Dadu. Before her death, Dadu’s wife made upgrades to the home that now keep them relatively cool and supplied with rainwater. But a cool house and rainwater only go so far and they’re starving, albeit at a slower pace than others.
Unable to bring herself to eat the algae being sold as food at the local market, Ma thinks back on better times. “She wanted to pluck the domed half potato from a box of biryani, keen to yield to the press of fingertips, fragrant and sweet. She wanted a jar of pickles open before her upon the table, lime peel and sugar and chili ardent on the tongue, before the crow that tracked lunchtime alighted on the balcony and dipped its demanding head at her, going caw caw until it received a small handful of the fish bones that remained.”
Ma’s husband has secured employment as a scientist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Ma, Mishti, and Dadu only have seven days before they board the plane to join him. Climate refugee visas in hand, what could go wrong?
Boomba
Rounding out the cast of characters is Boomba, a twenty-year-old who has recently arrived in the city from the rural area where his parents and baby brother struggle to survive. Their jobs and lands have been lost to the various climatic changes in the area. As a resident at the shelter where Ma works, his actions set off the chain of events that will change all of their lives in an irreparable way.
Poetic yet Approachable
Majumdar’s writing is beautiful. Poetic yet approachable, I often found myself making notes of quotes I wanted to remember. No way was I going to scribble annotations into my hardback copy. Although I’ve never been to India, know nothing of torrential rains and flooding or where I think I might have to go to get my next meal, I was still able to relate. Majumdar eloquently describes things we’ve all experienced: “In the minutes that followed, a cold light fell upon the agitating trees, and an intent rain began, curtains of water in which descent may have been ascent, fall may have been stasis.”
In the minutes that followed, a cold light fell upon the agitating trees, and an intent rain began, curtains of water in which descent may have been ascent, fall may have been stasis.
Catapult
Majumdar’s experience as former head editor at Catapult Books is on display throughout this book. It isn’t easy to edit your own work, but no doubt her abilities contributed to the smoothness with which A Guardian and a Thief unfolds. The tension ramps up as the day of Ma, Mishti and Dadu’s hoped-for departure approaches. We just want Ma, Mishti and Dadu to make it onto that plane to Ann Arbor.
Nothing Left
At a recent book club meeting, someone said they didn’t like Ma. She was disappointed that Ma didn’t try a more community-centered approach to life, rather than one that seemed so self-centered. I saw it differently. It’s not as though Ma goes through life in an unfeeling way. Dadu at a certain point reflects on her caring attitude towards the shelter residents. Near the end of the novel, when Ma sees a street beggar, her heart still feels a tug. However, she has nothing left to give, and no way to help him or anyone else. She “looked away from the beggar, toward Mishti, more human than the human before her.”
Life has taken a toll on her in ways I don’t think she can recover from. Life is a ladder, and there’s going to be some stepping on of hands. Ma tries not to step on those below her, but those in positions of bureaucratic or other power above her are mashing her fingers, too.
Hanging Onto the Rungs
All the characters in the book are hanging onto the rungs of the ladder as best they can. Boomba hopes to one day make it to the rung occupied by Ma and her family. Ma and her family hope to stand on the same Ann Arbor rung as Baba, Ma’s husband. The characters know what they want, and while sometimes they feel bad about the choices they’re making, they push on. As Boomba says, “Didn’t Boomba’s family deserve the smallest part of such a life, which was to say, a home that allowed neither mosquito nor rainwater nor robber to assault them?”
We See Ourselves
We see ourselves in all of the characters in A Guardian and a Thief. It’s easy to think you’d act differently, but when push comes to shove, I think you’re going to do what’s best for you and your family, no matter how good a person you’ve been up to that point. As Boomba thinks at a certain point: “All Boomba was, was a man whose moral compass pointed toward the north of his own family. Wasn’t that the most ordinary thing in the world?”
All Boomba was, was a man whose moral compass pointed toward the north of his own family. Wasn’t that the most ordinary thing in the world?
Yes, it is the most ordinary thing in the world. If only we weren’t painted into corners where we have to make heartbreaking choices, where the lines between guardian and thief blur, or the roles are reversed. As I read, I couldn’t help but remember Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 masterpiece The Bicycle Thief (Bicycle Thieves/Ladri di biciclette). We’ve all got some guardian and some thief in us. No one in this book escapes unscathed, and the ending, like that of The Bicycle Thief, is a gut punch.
Shoutout to the Audiobook Narrators
A big shoutout to the audiobook narrators. I listened to part of the book while I read along, and it was highly entertaining.
How about you? Have you read anything by Megha Majumdar? What are some of your favorites reads so far this year? Let me know in the comments below.
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