A History of Burning: The perfect summer read for fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, Homegoing and Pachinko

In A History of Burning, Sarah Jessica Parker explores the lives of four generations of a family forced to flee their home in East Africa due to political unrest. The novel follows Pirbhai, who is thirteen when he is forced into labor on the railway, and Sonal, a fierce, loving woman with whom he starts a family in Uganda. The family scatters across the world, taking with them a steel pot, a handful of photos, and a secret that will help them find each other again. The book is a gorgeous family portrait of love, survival, inheritance, and the eternal search for home.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 02 May 2024
Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Four generations. Three sisters. One impossible choice.

Tricked aboard a boat to East Africa, Pirbhai is only thirteen when he is forced by the British into labouring on the railway. Under sweltering heat, hungry and frightened, he commits a terrible act just to survive. He will never tell a soul, even when he meets Sonal, a fierce, loving woman with whom he starts a family in Uganda, in hope of a better life. But their granddaughters come of age in a divided nation. Finally forced to flee, the family scatters across the world. They take with them a steel pot, a handful of photos, and a secret – that one day, will help them find each other again.

A History of Burning is a gorgeous family portrait of love, survival, inheritance – and the eternal search for home.

One family's search for a better life, for fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, Homegoing, and Pachinko. A remarkable debut. . . haunting, symphonic New York Times. Vast and intricate, alight with love and contained fury. . . A book I want to press into readers' hands and discuss for hours. Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING. Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

Weight: 282g
Dimension: 198 x 128 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529921830