A HISTORY OF BURNING

392pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (2023) 2024

In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labour for the British on the East African Railway. Hungry and frightened, Pirbhai commits a brutal act to survive, an act that will haunt his family for generations.

"A remarkable debut ... skilfully interrogates sweeping themes of survival, inheritance, immigration, colonialism and racism ... Oza's narrative traverses almost of century of time, four generations of family, five continents and multiple languages ... The result is a haunting, symphonic tale that speaks to the nuanced complexities of class and trauma." New York Times

"A History of Burning is that rare epic that manages to retain both its sweep and its intimacy. Janika Oza has written a generational saga vivid and alive with sensory and historical detail, an excavation of stories often left untold. This is a beautiful book, unflinching yet deeply engaged with that most human work, the work of forgiveness.” Omar El Akkad, author of American War

Janika Oza is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She lives in Toronto.