A Burning

The poor and disenfranchised made convenient scapegoats to larger political will otherwise ambivalent to people found on the fringes. Self interest and the slim chance of upward mobility are enough to turn a blind eye, to rationalize inaction. Tiny omissions, petty corruptions and the occasional lie - minor infractions easily justified even as their effects cascade. The press happy to fan the flames of scandal while politicians preen delivering vague promises to credulous constituents. And with this debut we're introduced to the tumultuous and completely foreign world of modern day India.

The book opens with a young Jivan posting an angry and pointed rebuke online after she is witness to a deadly train fire that kills hundreds of innocents. It is enough to have her arrested, a confession beaten out of her, and confined to a jail cell.

From there we are introduced to two individuals who might prove her salvation. There is Lovely, a hijra recognized as a third gender in India, an intersex and transgender people who are believed to have a special connection to god and get by in the community by offering blessings at births and weddings. Lovely knows the package Jivan was carrying wasn't a bomb but rather books she was bringing to help with the English she was regularly tutoring her in. We also meet PT Sir, a simple school teacher who remembers Jivan fondly for her athletic ability and sought to be her mentor, sneaking her extra food, knowing how poor her family was.

And yet their prospects seem to rise even as Jivan's falls. They will both have to decide what price their success. Is salvation possible for anyone? Thank goodness this is set a world away, the examination of self-justification and willful blindness in the face of injustice, of individual success regardless of a larger cost, or performative action and rampant opportunism might otherwise hit a little too close to home.