I was seeing A Guardian and a Thief (2025) by Megha Majumdar all over the place at the end of last year. It was on every best-of list that I could find. It’s a finalist for the National Book Award, and has many other accolades. I thought this book was very memorable and well written, but also difficult to read because of the subject matter. It feels a little too real and a little too on point, and it is horrifying to be an intimate viewer to its tragedy. If you haven’t read this book, but are interested, I would recommend skipping my review and reading the novel with as little foreknowledge as possible.
Ma, her aging father, and her 2-year-old daughter, Mishti live in Kolkata in the near future. Climate change has wreaked havoc on the city. There is very little food, it is dangerously hot, and the pollution is suffocating. They are lucky to live in a nice house with air conditioning and have a small stock of food. The book begins with the small family making their way to the American Embassy to receive their passports and visas. They are traveling to the United States in one week in order to join Ma’s husband and Mishti’s father, Babu. Ma is desperate to get out before things get even worse. They were able to obtain the visas because Babu is a climate scientist. He is now waiting for the arrival of his family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
However, the night they receive the passports, Boomba, a young man from outside of the city comes into their home and steals almost all of their food, Ma’s purse with the passports, and even Mishti’s small toy truck. The family wakes in the morning and realizes their lives have turned from a short-lived struggle to one of desperation and possible despair. The police do not help them. The embassy also has no sympathy for them, and will likely not be around much longer anyways. Both Ma and her father will do anything to protect young Mishti as they figure out what to do.
As I read this book, it was interesting to focus on how I felt about the characters. Beginning the book with Ma, her father, and Mishti naturally had me rooting for them. Who doesn’t want an adorable little toddler reunited with her father and living in relatively safer conditions. I hated that Boomba ignorantly stole the precious documents they needed for safe passage–not even recognizing what they were for. Sure, Ma took a little food from the shelter she worked for, but who doesn’t want to feed their kids.
But then I learned more about Boomba. He had a family in much worse straits with no promise of the relief of moving to the United States. He came to the city out of a desperation to bring his family to a better place, but he had so few options. When everything was stolen from him, he was left with nothing. And then he saw Ma steal some eggs at the shelter he was staying at and decided to steal them back from her.
In the end, this story has no heroes and no villains. Ma is a caring person who ran the shelter with compassion; she sacrifices so much for her daughter and family; but she can also steal from that shelter for the security of her family. Boomba is a loving, hardworking brother and son who is willing to work hard to bring them to a better life. But when that is not an option, he will steal, lie, and threaten violence for them. Even Ma’s father, an artist at heart with an abiding love for the city of his birth, will do anything it takes to provide for his granddaughter.
This book was a stressful read because it was obvious that there would be no happy endings with such desperation. But it was also memorable and felt like a pointed reminder of where our world might end up (or has ended up in some places) with climate change and drastic inequalities of wealth.
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