A beautifully written, but not overwritten book. The layered story is mature and accomplished, it does not read like a debut novel. The book is well researched, but the research does not overpower the tale. This is a good rich story and will not disappoint.

Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury, A History of Burning is a towering debut by a phenomenal writer. A book I want to press into readers' hands and discuss for hours' Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING

India, 1898. Pirbhai is thirteen when he steps into a dhow on the vague promise of work; his family is suffering and he will do anything to help. The boat takes him to labour for the British on the East Africa railway. He has no money, no voice, no power - and will make impossible choices in the name of survival.

Once a history is set alight it stays alight. Flames get tangled between strands of future, burning through home and hope and the way we remember, until only blame and ashes of grief remain. We blame the man who sets the fire instead of the devil who places the matches in his palm, the same palm that days ago was touching his mother, the same palm that did not realise the same devil was a devil, the same devil who stole the same palm from the same mother. The same palm only coincidentally holding the matches when it is the white man who burns everything anyway. The man does not know to blame that devil for the histories that will continue to blaze. He only believes his own hand sparked the fire.

Janika Oza’s debut novel is thus set up by fire and multitudes of grief and wrong beliefs that burn and burn for almost a century, as we follow the descendants of Pirbhai (that same stolen boy now man now ancestor) in East Africa. Intertwined in the flames is the question that no one should have to ask: love or living, love or JUSTICE, that ‘or’ that choice that should be an intersection, that choice that exists after a boy was stolen but would have existed for another boy who was stolen even if this one was not. It is a choice, a question, that burns this family, of course, wherever they go, but it is a question that is still burning us, today, burning as we try to make sense of a world where love and justice are not the flames burning down the house but the ones of warmth (bonfire, girl kisses girl, hand in hand, candlelight, gas stove). This is what makes Oza’s historical fiction so potent: its presence in both history and present and future, the way it does not forgive or forget, the way it reminds us that some things burn down long before we had a chance to smell the smoke, regardless of where we are, and when, regardless of whether you ask the mother or her mother or her daughter or the window through which they watch their worlds collapse time after time.

(Check trigger warnings. It is a history of people who were not allowed to have love or justice. I imagine you can anticipate what type of violences fill the pages.)

This multi-generational saga of an Indo-Ugandan family covers the period from the end of the 19th century right into modern times and takes the reader from India via Kenya and Uganda to Canada.
It is a tale of colonialism, forced migration and the undying desire of any human being to build a home, to grow roots somewhere without feeling threatened and to offer your family a prosperous and happy future.

When Pirbhai is persuaded by a recruiter to leave his home and family in India to build the trainline from Mombassa to Uganda for the British, he gets into the colonial mill which will never loosen its grip over him. The work is brutal, his displacement is final - and still he forges a life creating a loving family and is wishing for nothing more than to give them a secure future. The end of colonialism however created its own problems with rising nationalism in the now independent countries. And so it goes on: His children and their families were forced to find a new future for themselves and again they grow tentative roots in a place they eventually want to call home only to realise that again, ‘the country had moved on. If once they had proclaimed heroism, opening their arms to the deluge of refugees, now they were turning their backs. We became the next burden’.

First and foremost, this is a family saga and a story very well told. It explores in many different ways how far we will go to protect our loved ones - something most likely to resonate with all of us. I loved it.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Chatto&Windus / Penguin / Vintage for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An ambitious and cleverly executed multi-generational novel. Incredibly well written and thought provoking

Thrilling and utterly compulsive! An incredible read, impossible to put down. Incredible storytelling! Recommend you read this book! A propulsive read that never let me go from start to finish!

A History of Burning is a multi-generational work of literary fiction - a saga, likened to Pachinko, Homegoing and Half of a Yellow Sun. The story focuses on Pirbhai and Sonal and their family from the late 1800s to the 1990s, covering key periods of history such as colonialism in India by the British Empire to the military coup that saw Idi Amin's rise to power in Uganda to modern times.

History of Burning explores themes of racism, colonialism and immigration, especially the want for a better life, which kicks off the start of the book. But also the fragmentation of identity that comes with colonialism and moving from one country to another, yet never really feeling a part of one or another. Or having lived your whole life in one place but not being welcome in the country you call home.

Oza creates wonderfully tangible characters who bleed into reality; you ache for them.

NB: The content is heavy, but the book is very much worth it, and one that will stay with you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage, Chatto & Windus for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book #326 of 2022

Couldn’t get into this at all. I found it hard going and it didn’t capture my imagsyion they I hoped it would. Thanks for the ARC but not for me

4.5 stars rounded up

When I first saw that this book was compared to Pachinko and Homegoing, I thought it was too good to be true. Having read "A History of Burning", I can say that the comparison is fully deserved. This was a beautiful story about family bonds, hope, and love in the face of unimaginable pain, loss, and animosity. I can highly recommend this book anyone and can't wait to read what else the author might have in store for us.

I’m struggling to put into words how magnificent this book is! It’s a well-written and thought-provoking read, one of the most stunning I have read in a while. The narrative follows a family as they disperse across the globe in an effort to escape the atrocities of Idi Amin and establish new lives for themselves.
Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Vintage, Chatto & Windus for the opportunity to read and review this breathtaking read.

A brilliant, thought-provoking multi-generational tale of one family's experiences dealing with imperialism and the turbulence of changing political times. The characters are richly drawn and unique individuals in the way they respond and adapt to the events unique to their time and place.

brilliant, thought-provoking read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this title in exchange for my feedback.

Heartbreaking, breathtaking & a prize winner for sure. One of the most stunning books I have read in a long time I’m still haunted by the prose & characters. I learnt so much about Ugandan history & the devastation of imperial rule, emotionally & generationally. Every character is drawn magnificently, every descriptive passage, vivid & lyrical. This book is full of heart & humanity. Absolutely superb. Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for the ARC is return for an honest review.

Brilliant. I approached this book with some trepidation, concerned that it could be self-indulgent and mawkish; but it is anything but.
A multi-generational tale of families and communities blown around by the winds of political and historical change as the British Empire collapses and reduces. From the partition of India in 1948 to the exclusion of Asians by Idi Amin in 1972 to the (not stated) Black Lives Matter movement of recent years, this is a story of separation, loss, love, guilt and friendships amid the turbulent history of the second half of the Twentieth Century. It is also a story of resilience and hope, as individuals and families adapt to new environments. Not all are victims. Some characters are prepared to fight for their place in society, even at great cost to themselves and their families.
Given that there are many non-English words, the book would benefit from a glossary.

This book follows a family from the late 1800s to the 1990s. The reader is able to spend time with each character seeing them develop from child to adult. There is historical context to each time period, which shows the impact of generational trauma, but the book is mainly about the family and their relationships with each other and themselves. It took me a few chapters to get into this but once I had great affection them.

A History of Burning seamlessly combines the personal stories of a family across the generations with the political backdrop of colonialism in India and East Africa and the coming to power of Amin in Uganda. The family members each find their own response to oppression: resistance, escape, accommodation.

The novel spans continents and in each setting there is a vivid sense of place - the landscape, the food, the culture. Through rapid changes the family members each define their own identity, as events mean some are estranged not just from the wider community but from oneanother.

This a very well written, thought provoking and evocative read that is full of rich imgaery. The storyline is emotive and gripping and the characters are well developed. I really enjoyed it and I love the front cover, it is so eye catching