A history of burning

£9.99

India, 1898: Pirbhai is thirteen when he steps into a dhow on the vague promise of work – his family is suffering and he will do anything to help. Forced to labour for the British on the East Africa Railway, he has no money, no voice, no power. Sonal is fierce and loving, always willing to fight for what she believes in. When Pirbhai, weathered from his time on the railway but not broken, walks into her father’s shop, she knows he is part of her future, and together they set out for a new life in Uganda. So begins the story of their family as they scatter across the world, fleeing the brutality of Idi Amin.

Out of stock

Description

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A SARAH JESSICA PARKER BOOK OF THE YEAR

Four generations. Three sisters. One impossible choice.

Tricked aboard a boat to East Africa, Pirbhai is only thirteen when he is forced by the British into labouring on the railway. Under sweltering heat, hungry and frightened, he commits a terrible act just to survive.

He will never tell a soul, even when he meets Sonal, a fierce, loving woman with whom he starts a family in Uganda, in hope of a better life. But their granddaughters come of age in a divided nation.

Finally forced to flee, the family scatters across the world. They take with them a steel pot, a handful of photos, and a secret – that one day, will help them find each other again.

A History of Burning is a gorgeous family portrait of love, survival, inheritance – and the eternal search for home.

One family’s search for a better life, for fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, Homegoing and Pachinko

‘A remarkable debut . . . haunting, symphonic’ New York Times

‘Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury . . . A book I want to press into readers’ hands and discuss for hours’ Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING

Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award

Additional information

Weight 0.282 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.8 × 2.3 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

400

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K