A History of Burning: A Novel
Janika OzaAs Uganda moves towards independence & military dictatorship, Pirbhai's granddaughters, Latika, Mayuri, & Kiya, are three sisters coming of age in a divided nation. As they each forge their own path for a future, they must carry the silence of the history they've inherited. In 1972, under Idi Amin's brutal regime & the South Asian expulsion, the family has no choice but to flee, & in the chaos, they leave something devastating behind.
As Pirbhai's grandchildren, scattered across the world, find their way back to each other in exile in Toronto, a letter arrives that stokes the flames of the fire that haunts the family. It makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, & who they are willing to defy to secure their own place in the world. A History of Burning is an unforgettable tour de force, an intimate family saga of complicity & resistance, about the stories we share, the ones that remain unspoken, & the eternal search for home"
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Janika Oza is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction, & the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award. She has received support from The Millay Colony, Tin House Summer & Winter Workshops, VONA/Voices of Our Nation, & the One Story Summer Writers’ Conference, & her stories & essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, & Prairie Schooner, among others. She lives in Toronto.