Our October 2026 book club pick is A Guardian And A Thief by Megha Majumdar.

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE • 
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK

Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning, is set in a near-future Kolkata, India in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other. A piercing and propulsive tour de force.

“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go.” —Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life

In a near-future Kolkata, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.