A History of Burning A Novel

An exhilarating and profoundly moving epic novel spanning India, Uganda, England, and Canada, about how one act of survival reverberates across four generations of a family and their search for a place of their own.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labour on the East African Railway for the British. One day, he makes a desperate choice to ensure his survival that will shadow his family’s future for decades to come.

During the waning days of British colonial rule, and as Uganda moves towards Independence and military dictatorship, Pirbhai’s children and grandchildren come of age in a divided nation. In 1972, under Idi Amin’s brutal regime, the family has no choice but to flee, and in the chaos, they leave something devastating and unexpected behind. As Pirbhai’s grandchildren find their way back to each other in exile in Toronto, news arrives that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, in order to secure their own place in the world.

An intimate family saga of complicity and resistance, A History of Burning is an astonishing novel about the stories we share, the ones that remain unspoken, and the eternal search for home. With this radiant debut, Janika Oza announces herself as one of the most exciting writers of her generation.