A Guardian and a Thief : Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2026

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 A GUARDIAN ‘BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2026’ OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK TIME MUST-READ BOOK WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE ‘Majumdar evades the narrative clunkiness that inevitably attends attempts to explain India to the west. This frees her up not only to tell a story of universal moral interest, but also to deliver a perceptive account of specifically Indian anxieties.… A Guardian and a Thief dramatises, to superb effect, the Indian elite’s great fear: a world in which they are forced to share’ Guardian ‘Nothing goes to plan in this ­propulsive black farce which ­combines ­vertiginous plot twists and a persuasive doomy atmosphere with a terrific spin on the moral hypocrisy of the Indian middle classes.’ Daily Mail ‘Gripping… [It] is an impressive novel. Pages suffused with ambient menace also accommodate tenderness’ Spectator ‘An indictment of this moment and a timeless parable about the lengths we go to for love and self-preservation, written in exuberant prose - this is a novel that will burrow its way into your soul and remain there forever’ Tahmima Anam NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, NEW YORKER, WASHINGTON POST, NPR, ATLANTIC, TIME, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, ELLE, KIRKUS, BOOKPAGE Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times Bestseller A Burning—longlisted for the National Book Award—is set in a near-future Kolkata, India, ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other—a piercing and propulsive tour de force.   In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father Dadu are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas