Synopses & Reviews
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows two families one English, one Bengali as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.
Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of Sea of Poppies, a novel weaving history and memory together to create "a rare work that balances formal ingenuity, heart, and mind" (New Republic)
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows two families--one English, one Bengali--as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.
Synopsis
"A stunning novel" following two families -- one British, one Bengali -- from the New York Times best-selling author of Sea of Poppies (The New Republic).
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows an English family and a Bengali family as their lives intertwine across the generations in both tragic and comic ways.
The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence -- observing the ways in which political events invade private lives -- in an "ambitious, funny, poignant" saga (A. K. Ramanujan).
"Amusing, sad, wise, and truly international in scope." -- New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and raised and educated in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, India, and the United Kingdom, where he received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Oxford. Acclaimed for fiction, travel writing, and journalism, his books include ,The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land, and Dancing in Cambodia. His previous novel, The Glass Palace, was an international bestseller that sold more than a half-million copies in Britain. Recently published there, The Hungry Tide has been sold for translation in twelve foreign countries and is also a bestseller abroad. Ghosh has won Frances Prix Medici Etranger, Indias prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Pushcart Prize. He is a visiting professor at Harvard University.