This
epic, sweeping historical novel full of "wondrous complexity”
spans continents and a century, and reveals how one act of survival
can reverberate through generations (Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye,
Vitamin).
“Remarkable….a
haunting, symphonic tale”— New York Times Book Review
In
1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his
village in India to labor for the British on the East African
Railway. Far from home, Pirbhai commits a brutal act in the name of
survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come.
So
begins Janika Oza’s masterful, richly told epic, where the embers
of this desperate act are fanned into flame over four generations,
four continents, throughout the twentieth century. Pirbhai’s
children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British
colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his
granddaughters, three sisters, come of age in a divided nation.
Latika is an aspiring journalist, who will put everything on the line
for what she believes in; Mayuri’s ambitions will take her farther
away from home than she ever imagined; and fearless Kiya will have to
carry the weight of her family’s silence and secrets.
In
1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military
dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the
world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a
letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far
they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure
their own place in the world.
A
History of Burning
is an unforgettable tour de force, an intimate family saga of
complicity and resistance, about the stories we share, the ones that
remain unspoken, and the eternal search for home.