Review: A Guardian & a Thief

2/5 stars

A Guardian & a Thief, by Megha Majumdar (2025)

Bleak. If you like a book where everything goes wrong (to the point where you're like, all of this happened to one family in one week??) and everyone ends up miserable, I guess this one's for you. I'm not someone who needs a happy ending for every story, but some modicum of hope, at least, is what gets the reader through the worst sorts of depravity, poverty, and desperation. A likable character or two also helps.

I really thought this was pretty poignant for the first 3/4 of the book. Ma lives with her young daughter, Mishti, and her father in a near-future Kolkata, India where climate change has dried out the earth and made resources like food and water scarce. Ma's husband is in the U.S., and she is making plans to join him there, having secured visas for herself, Mishit, and her father. Ma recently quit her job at a homeless shelter, where she was siphoning of food and money to help support her family and prepare for the journey.

Unfortunately, her thievery is witnessed by a young man, Boomba, desperate to find a way to support his family. He takes her theft as an excuse to do the same; He breaks into her home and steals her food stores and her purse, which contains their priceless passports and visas for the U.S. When Ma finally finds out who the thief is, she confronts him, only to be hit with the same accusation of criminal behavior.

They're both thieves, doing what they do to act as guardians (get it?) for their families.... in case you didn't make the connection.

The rest of the book is misfortune after misfortune for all parties, ending with a pointless death. I get that fear and helplessness lead people to do horrible things, and that, more often than not, things don't end well in a place where circumstance has degraded the foundations of society and replaced them with despair. I just think a story also has to have some discernible heart somewhere, and a little more complexity to the characters. I didn't find any nuance in this novel. "Bad things happen" does not equal "good story." With no reprieve, no moments of joy, and no introspection, it just felt flat and sad. It didn't teach me anything or make me feel anything. I'm underwhelmed.

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