A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick cover art

A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick

A Novel

 Preview

Audible Standard 1-month free trial

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo + applicable tax after 30-day trial. Cancel Anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick

Written by: Megha Majumdar
Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Priya Ayyar, Deepti Gupta, Ulka Simone Mohanty, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.97

Buy Now for $21.97

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. Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Espionage Fiction Exciting Witty Thriller
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most Relevant
This book does a good job portraying the biased anti Muslim fabric of Indian society. At times I felt the story had some gaps but in general an interesting read.

Portrait of anti Muslim racism in India

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
3 excellent narrators made the characters come to life! Pathos and humor throughout the story

Great performances, compelling story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
(Contains mild spoilers.)
Superb performances by the readers make this leap out of the page more like a radio drama than a novel with the unscrupulous teacher, unfortunate clothing sales assistant and the very fortunate hijra all very well read by the narrators. It is now quite familiar in novels for the voice to flip between various characters in sequential chapters and it works very well in this book.
Terrorism, the uses and abuses of social media impacting the lives of novice (and experienced) users and the dark stain of corruption are themes throughout together with poverty and overt racism between the different groups of the population. This is happening world wide, this novel happens to be in India but it could be anywhere.
In my naivety I thought that PT Sir would be exposed as a charlatan enabling Jivan's trial to be declared a mistrial but, well, I won't expand.
Unusual for books to end with such a downer. The great success of the two surviving characters both depended on their interactions with Jivan, who paid the ultimate sacrifice, but isn't this the story of humanity?

Metaphor for our times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great production that really brought the rich writing to life. I’m often distracted so audible is an aid to finishing but I’ve rarely heard an audiobook so well done!! Excellent!

Like Theatre!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Slow to start.
The story doesn’t go anywhere. Quite disappointed when it ends. Feel like each character doesnt really connect with one another although the the characters’ descriptions are vivid.

Meh

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.