A Guardian and a Thief
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Before we talk about the book at all: where did you read it, and did you find yourself reaching for a glass of water more than usual?
The title gives you two words, guardian and thief. Which one did your heart gravitate toward as you started reading, and did that shift?
This is a book about people caring for other people under pressure. Who in your own life has quietly guarded you, and did any scene here bring them to mind?
Majumdar writes about water the way other books write about money or love. Did reading it change how it feels to turn on your tap, even for a day?
The book is set in a near-future India, but it is full of very ordinary domestic texture: meals, errands, family logistics. Which of those small homey details comforted you most while the larger world was fraying?
When the story asked you to understand a choice you would normally judge, did you find yourself softening? What made that possible?
By the end you have watched love ask people for things that cost them. Was there a moment where you felt tenderness and discomfort at the same time, and are you willing to sit in that out loud?
Majumdar keeps this very short. Thinking back over the whole arc, what did the brevity do to you emotionally, and what are you still carrying around days later?