Hungry Tide

From the author of the international bestseller and reading-group favorite The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide is a novel of adventure and romance set in the exotic Sundarbans, the treacherous islands in the Bay of Bengal where isolated inhabitants live in constant fear of the drowning tides and man-eating tigers.

When a headstrong, young American marine biologist, the daughter of Bengali immigrants, arrives to study a rare species of river dolphin, she enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a translator. Their fates on the waterways will be determined by the forces of nature and human folly. With this lush landscape as backdrop, Amitav Ghosh tells both an intimate story of self-discovery and an epic story of the clash between civilization and the environment.

"Ghosh not only infuses great energy and spirit into an engrossing tale of caste and culture, he deftly introduces readers to a little-known world and makes it familiar." Entertainment Weekly

"The Hungry Tide is a great swirl of political, social, and environmental issures, presented through a story that's full of romance, suspense, and poetry." The Washington Post

"[A] complex narrative filled with echoes of Naipaul and especially Conrad....A bit bumpy; still, overall, Ghosh's fifth is one of his most interesting." Kirkus Reviews

The Hungry Tide is a very contemporary story of adventure and unlikely love, identity, and history, set in one of the most fascinating regions on the earth. Off the easternmost coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. For settlers here, life is extremely precarious. Attacks by deadly tigers are common. Unrest and eviction are constant threats. Without warning, at any time, tidal floods rise and surge over the land, leaving devastation in their wake.

In this place of vengeful beauty, the lives of three people from different worlds collide. Piya Roy is a young marine biologist, of Indian descent but stubbornly American, in search of a rare, endangered river dolphin. Her journey begins with a disaster, when she is thrown from a boat into crocodile-infested waters. Rescue comes in the form of a young, illiterate fisherman, Fokir. Although they have no language between them, Piya and Fokir are powerfully drawn to each other, sharing an uncanny instinct for the ways of the sea. Piya engages Fokir to help with her research and finds a translator in Kanai Dutt, a businessman from Delhi whose idealistic aunt and uncle are longtime settlers in the Sundarbans. As the three of them launch into the elaborate backwaters, they are drawn unawares into the hidden undercurrents of this isolated world, where political turmoil exacts a personal toll that is every bit as powerful as the ravaging tide.

Already an international success, The Hungry Tide is a prophetic novel of remarkable insight, beauty, and humanity.

From Amitav Ghosh, award-winning and international best-selling author of the Ibis Trilogy, The Hungry Tide is a very contemporary story of adventure and unlikely love, identity, and history, set in one of the most fascinating regions on the earth.

A Washington Post Book World, San Francisco Chronicle, and Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year

A Finalist for the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction

Life is harsh in the Sundarbans, the treacherous islands in the Bay of Bengal where isolated inhabitants live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. Piya Roy is a young marine biologist, of Indian descent but stubbornly American, who has come here in search of a rare, endangered river dolphin. She enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a translator, and soon their fates on the waterways will be determined by the forces of nature and human folly.

A sprawling, stormy, magnificent novel of India untamed. -- O: The Oprah Magazine

Engrossing. -- Entertainment Weekly

A certifiable page-turner...gripping. -- Boston Globe

A contemporary story of adventure and romance, identity and history, this novel brings two outsiders deep into one of the most fascinating regions on Earth — tiny islands known as the Sundarbans off the coast of India — where life is ruled by the unforgiving tides and the constant threat of attack by Bengal tigers.

A contemporary story of adventure, history, and identity by acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh.

 

Off the easternmost corner of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans, where settlers live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. Piya Roy, a young American marine biologist of Indian descent, arrives in this lush, treacherous landscape in search of a rare species of river dolphin and enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a translator. Together the three of them launch into the elaborate backwaters, drawn unawares into the powerful political undercurrents of this isolated corner of the world that exact a personal toll as fierce as the tides.

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 France's Prix Medici Etranger, India's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Pushcart Prize. He now divides his time between Harvard University, where he is a visiting professor, and his homes in India and Brooklyn, New York.