by Cathryn_Conroy: Desperate times. Even more desperate people. What would you do to feed your family and keep your loved ones safe if everything around you was collapsing?
Written by Megha Majumdar, this remarkable, multilayered novel takes place in the near future in Kolkata, India where temperatures have soared so high that the vegetation is dying, fish are swimming away to cooler waters, water is a precious commodity, and people are fleeing in droves. Those who are left are suffering from heat, hunger, and hopelessness.
Ma and her elderly father, Dadu, live in the house in which Dadu grew up. Mishti is a happy, precocious two-year-old, oblivious to the suffering all around her. The small three-generation family is preparing to move to Ann Arbor, Michigan where Ma’s husband awaits them. They are climate refugees, securing the valuable and long-awaited passports and visas that will allow them entry into the United States. Their booked flight leaves in seven days. In the middle of the night one week before their departure, a thief breaks into their home, stealing not only the precious food they have hoarded and hidden, but also Ma’s purse in which the prized passports, much of their money, and her cell phone are stored. When they awaken in the morning and discover the robbery, their small, safe world collapses.
The thief is Boomba, a teenager who has fled from the country to the city to try to make a better life for his parents and beloved baby brother, Robi, who are currently living under a leaky tarp. Boomba was essentially Robi’s guardian, the one the little boy loved most in the world. Once he gets to the city, Boomba has a series of misadventures in which he gets work, makes money, and loses the money. He sleeps in a shelter, and it is there that he sees Ma—and what he sees is startling. Ma, who works in the shelter, is stealing food meant to go to the shelter’s residents. He follows her home to rob her of the food. Boomba quickly sells the twice-stolen food; he also swiped the purse and tosses most of its contents into a garbage hillock, including the passports.
And so this haunting, almost thriller-like story begins. Ma and Boomba are both guardians and thieves. Will they be able to save themselves? Even if they are moral and ethical humans at heart, what is the breaking point when a fight for survival is paramount? This is a very close-up and personal look at the havoc and disaster wreaked by climate change.
And the ending? It is devastating and gut-wrenching. I never saw it coming, but it’s a perfect statement on the ultimate meaning of the book.
With unexpected plot twists and wrenching emotional insights, this book is as much a chilling warning for the future as it is a gripping page-turner in the present.
Just a thought…a haunting, disturbing thought: I think of myself as a kind and compassionate person. I think that is who Ma was—in the before times. Who do we become when we are desperate? Who Ma becomes is frightening. Is that what happens?
