Set in a near-future Kolkata, A Guardian and a Thief blends climate-change crisis with intimate family drama. Megha Majumdar delivers a gripping, emotionally resonant tale crafted for readers who love urgent, character-driven fiction, and this Oprah's Book Club edition invites you to lean into a tense, hopeful journey.

Structured around two rising voices—Ma as she searches for the thief who stole her immigration documents, and Boomba, the man driven by desperation to care for his family—the novel unfolds across a single, breathless arc of days in a city already fraying at the edges. The experience is cinematic and intimate, with vivid scenes, swift pacing, and a clear sense of how scarcity reshapes choices that echo beyond one family’s doorstep. In A Guardian and a Thief, the stakes feel personal and global at once, making every page feel urgent and necessary.

• Two intertwined perspectives—Ma and Boomba—bringing the human impact of climate crisis into sharp relief
• Near-future Kolkata setting where climate change and food scarcity shape every choice
• Immigration documents and a desperate race against time raise the stakes for both families
• Majumdar's lyrical, cinematic prose and brisk pacing that keep the pages turning
• Themes of love, sacrifice, resilience and the lengths families will go to protect their children

After finishing A Guardian and a Thief, readers carry a richer sense of the human costs of climate disruption and the power of love to sustain a family. It leaves you thoughtful, hopeful, and compelled to consider what you would do to protect those you cherish when the world feels like it’s on the edge.