A Burning is the buzziest debut novel of the season, and with good reason.
But it’s landing at a historically uncertain time in American life.
“It’s definitely a strange time to be focused on a book,” Megha Majumdar admits.
Credit: Elena Seibert; Knopf
For months it’s been the toast of the literary community:the debut of the summer.
Just give a shot to remember that."
Read on below for Majumdar’s full conversation with EW.A Burningpublishes Tuesday and isavailable for pre-order.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’re publishing your first novel at a very anxious time.
But you’re also on the other side of the industry, as an editor at Catapult.
What has that been like?
MEGHA MAJUMDAR:I really love working at Catapult.
It’s always been a really supportive, creative environment.
I do hope that the pandemic will ease in a few months.
Well let’s talk aboutyourbook.
How did you go about constructing it?
How did you envision it reading?
That’s part of why the structure settled on these three big stories with the interludes.
The book felt so bursting with life, in that way, which I really appreciated.
Did you find that was a delicate balancing act?
Did you know from the outset that three was your magic number, in that sense?
What was very important to me was to write characters with complexity.
I did feel that three was that magic, dynamic number for me.
So how do the interludes work in tandem with that?
How did they fit into your overall tapestry?
I wanted to write this big, rich, bursting book like you said.
There are all of these ways in which people cope and justify to themselves what they do.
I wanted to hint at that to a reader.
How did it open up the story?
It’s funny that you ask because I did try at some point writing her in third-person.
Also I think there was a register of pain and injustice that I wanted to access.
But be defeated by all of these institutions around you.
That form of striving, that particular kind of love that passes between a parent and a child.
Sometimes you might find that you are your parents' guardian.
I think that is so interesting to me.
I find it very moving.
I’m interested in maintaining that in a novel like this, where complexity still is so important.
What’s interesting to me about her is that what she wants is so straightforward.
She wants to rise to the middle class.
She wants to not have to fight to get a reliable water supply.
She wants to know that her home will not be demolished.
She wants justice when her father suffers in the demolition of the slums.
It is to enjoy her new smartphone.
But she is thwarted in all of these ways.
They are defeated by their circumstances.
I wanted to see how somebody could have a go at do everything right but could still be defeated.
It’s such a profound form of injustice.
I wanted to look at that.
What you’re describing is a story that’s very true here in the United States as well.
I think that goes for a lot of parallels in this book, which feel deliberate.
Yes, for sure.
Even the profit motive trumps everything.
That was definitely a huge part of my work with this book.
I think a book is in so many ways an act of invitation.
You want to invite somebody in.
So I worked hard on that.
I wanted that kind of universal resonance to be present in the book.
But you find a lot of passion and hope in its youth.
Jivan does encapsulate in some ways the ambitions of India’s youth.
[Laughs] I’m sure that there are complexities and questions that this particular character doesn’t address.
If there is anything real and full of heart in her then that definitely draws on that reality.
But I had a story to tell.
I recommend the work of authors like Wayetu Moore, Raven Leilani, and Jamel Brinkley."
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