A History of Burning by Janika Oza is out now from Penguin Random House!

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.

One family’s search for a better life through four continents, four generations and a century of change.

Four Generations. Three Sisters. One Divided Nation.

India, 1898. Pirbhai is 13 when he steps into a dhow on the vague promise of work. The voyage is long. He has no money, no voice, no power — and will make impossible choices in the name of survival.

Sonal is fierce and loving, always willing to fight for what she believes in. When a young man called Pirbhai walks into her father’s shop in Kenya, she knows he is part of her future. Together they set out for a new life in Uganda.

Their granddaughters, three sisters, come of age in a divided nation. Latika falls headlong into the student protest movement. Mayuri’s ambitions will take her far from home. And fearless Kiya will have to carry the weight of her family’s past.

Finally, parents, children and grandchildren will scatter across the world, fleeing the brutality of Idi Amin, forging new paths in London, marching for equality in 1990s Canada, searching for a safe mooring. But under everything lies a secret. And one day, a letter arrives that will fan its embers into a flame.

A masterful and breathtakingly intimate saga of colonialism and exile, complicity and resistance, A History of Burning is a radiant debut about the stories our families choose to share – and those that remain unspoken.

‘Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury, A History of Burning is a towering debut by a phenomenal writer. A book I want to press into readers’ hands and discuss for hours.’ – Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

Categories Africa Fiction International

Tags A History of Burning Janika Oza New books New releases Penguin Random House SA