https://www.booklistonline.com/A-History-of-Burning-/pid=9771510
Oza’s debut novel, a family saga spanning four continents and nearly a century, begins in 1898 when Pirbhai, a teenage boy in need of work, naively boards a ship to Africa and ends up as a railroad laborer for the British. With rich details about the plight of Indian migrants in Kenya and Uganda, Oza describes the coolies the British relied on, tradespeople in small towns, government servants in the hierarchical colonial society, and the growing social stability of the Indian diaspora community in East Africa in the early twentieth century. Then, as Pirbhai’s descendants are forced to leave Uganda, Oza captures the brutality of Idi Amin’s anti-Asian policies and the destruction of the social fabric of the country. As the family struggles to cope with the profound, long-term emotional impact of difficult choices made in times of war and upheaval, Oza dramatizes the intimate psychological repercussions of state actions on a global stage. From India to East Africa, England, and Toronto, Oza’s characters experience the heartbreak of departures and arrivals, communities lost and rebuilt. This striking epic combines powerful characters of different generations, compelling storytelling, dramatic settings and conflicts, and thoughtful explorations of displacement and belonging, family ties, citizenship, loyalty, loss, and resilience.
Stringing Words Together 