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