Oprah Winfrey names Megha Majumdar's "A Guardian and a Thief" her newest book club pick

We're excited to reveal this month's selection for Oprah's Book Club. We recently sat down for a discussion with Oprah and the author. The book is A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar. I have never read a book quite like this. I agree. And you agree. I agree. Megha Majumdar, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, Megha. First, start us off. How did you get the news and what did you think? It's one of my favorite calls ever. Is it? So you pick up the phone, she said, hi, this is Oprah. Was it like that? Yeah. She said, hi, who is this? And I said, Oprah. But anyway, on through the call, she's just like, is this really you? Is this a joke? Is this a prank? And I was starting to talk about the book. And then at one point, it was so endearing. You said, what a wild thing to happen in a day. What a wild thing. What a wild thing to happen in a day. You calling me? Yes. It's why I didn't believe it, because it was completely outside the context of my life. A call from Oprah. Yes. Why did you choose it? I chose it because I thought when I started the book, I knew who the guardian and the thief were. You think, oh, he's the guardian, she's the thief. And then the way you perceive the story changes in the middle of the story. One of the things I like so much, and we did a podcast for Starbucks, and one of the things I love so much that you said in that podcast is that you use fiction to really put a mirror on what humanity is, how we all think we know our moral center. I think I know your moral center. I think you do. Yes. And I think I know mine. What would you do in the midst of a famine? What would you do in the midst of a crisis if you had to take care of your child, your grandchild? Would you hold on to your center? What was the story that you wanted to tell? I wanted to think about what hope and love will look like in a time of climate crisis. What will it mean to love our children with ferocity and vigor in a time of scarcity? And what will happen when our love for our children clashes with the love that we have for our neighbors, our community, when our individual acts of hope come up against collective acts of hope? Let's talk about the crux of what the story is about. So A Guardian and a Thief is a novel which is set in my hometown of Kolkata, India. And it follows two families who are each seeking to protect their own children in the middle of a food shortage, in the middle of extreme climate change. And they find that this love for their children brings them into conflict with each other. There's also many times in the book where the people are not telling the truth. And I struggle with that. One of the characters is trying to get to America. And she keeps lying to her husband when things are going wrong and she's not able to get the passports or not get the visas or not get clearances to say that everything is coming. And she tells him that everything is OK. And that's one of the things I said in our phone call. Why does she keep lying to her husband? And you said... I said that this comes out of my experience being an immigrant. I moved from India to the US when I was 19 to go to college. And in phone calls home to my parents, I often hid how difficult things were. So you would say everything was fine? Yeah, I would say things were fine. I felt that... Especially to your parents who say, God, this is hard. I'm having a tough time. Yeah, exactly. That's what we talked about is two different ways of thinking about love, right? One is you ask for help. And one is... You try to protect them. I will say, too, that you shared with me during our podcast that you changed... The way you saw this story changed after you had your first son, your first child. How so? For a while, I was in this world of climate change in Kolkata, but my main character was a child of 10 or 11 years old. And I had a completely different story. And it wasn't working. The book was not working. Then I had my older son in 2021. And I became so curious about the mother. Who is this child's mother? What will she do to protect this child? Mothers play key roles, yes. Many times. Yes, yes. And it became so much about the ferocity of that love that parents and guardians have for children. I will say to you what Quincy Jones said to me when he first did The Color Purple. Your future's so bright it burns my eyes. It burns my eyes. Thank you so much. I'm so grateful. You need sunglasses talking to you. Your future's so bright. Congrats. Congratulations. I am so grateful. Thank you. A Guardian and a Thief is on sale now. Head over to cbsmornings.com to hear an excerpt read by the author. And to see more of Oprah and Megha Majumdar, check out Oprah's podcast. It's available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.