A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar – Buy Used in Sri Lanka for LKR 3,500

Set in a hauntingly plausible near-future Kolkata devastated by flooding and famine, A Guardian and a Thief follows two families whose lives collide through an act of desperation. Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are preparing to emigrate to the United States when their crucial immigration documents are stolen. As hunger tightens its grip on the city, Ma must find the thief while protecting her family’s last hope of escape.

The novel alternates between Ma’s frantic search and Boomba, the thief himself, whose own family pressures push him into increasingly dangerous crimes. Megha Majumdar crafts a morally complex narrative that refuses easy answers, exploring how love and desperation drive ordinary people to extraordinary choices.

Why This Book Matters

• From the New York Times bestselling author of A Burning
• Finalist for major literary awards
• Urgent climate fiction grounded in human emotion
• Praised for “dazzling and devastating prose”
• Compact at 224 pages but profoundly impactful

Book Details

• Format: Hardback (Used)
• Pages: 224
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780143477730
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton India
• Published: October 2025
• Price: LKR 3,500

Majumdar transforms a story of survival into a kaleidoscopic meditation on sacrifice, morality, and the fierce bonds that hold families together when everything else falls apart. This is literary fiction at its finest—intimate yet epic, local yet universal.

Order your used copy now from Bookshop Near Me and discover why critics are calling this one of the most important novels of our time.