‘A distinctive voice, polished and profound’-Times Literary Supplement
Between the sea and the plains of Bengal, on the easternmost coast of India, lies an immense archipelago of islands. Some are vast and some no larger than sandbars; some have lasted through recorded history while others have just washed into being. These are the Sundarbans. Here there are no borders to divide fresh water from salt, river from sea, even land from water. The settlers of the Sundarbans believe that anyone without a pure heart who ventures into the watery labyrinth will never return. Survival is an everyday battle for these people who have managed to strike a delicate balance with nature.
But the arrival of Piyali Roy, of Indian parentage but stubbornly American, and of Kanai Dutt, a sophisticated Delhi businessman, threatens to upset this balance. Kanai has returned to the islands on the request of his aunt, a local figure, for the first time since the death of his uncle, a political radical who died mysteriously in the aftermath of a local uprising. When Piya, who is on the track of the rare river dolphins, hires Fokir, an illiterate but proud local man to guide her through the backwaters, Kanai becomes her translator. From this moment, the tide begins to turn.
Amitav Ghosh has discovered another new territory, summoning a singular, fascinating place, another world, from its history and myth, and bringing it to life. Yet The Hungry Tide also explores another and far more unknowable jungle: the human spirit. It is a novel that asks at every turn: what man can take the true measure of another?
Catagory: Fiction
Fiction main category
In An Antique Land: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award
Packed with anecdote and exuberant detail, In an Antique Land provides magical and intimate insights into Egypt from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm. It exposes the indistinguishable and intertwining ties that bind together India and Egypt, Hindus and Muslims and Jews. By combining fiction, history, travel writing and anthropology, to create a single seamless work of imagination, Ghosh characteristically makes us rethink the political boundaries that divide the world and the generic boundaries that divide narratives.
The Circle Of Reason: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award
Following the form of the raga in Indian classical music, Amitav Ghosh slowly builds the tempo of The Circle of Reason. The first part spans several decades, the second unfolds over a few weeks, and the third, like a scherzo, races through a day. Ghosh’s debut novel centres on Alu, an orphan enlisted by his foster father as a soldier in his crusade against the forces of myth and unreason. Suspected of terrorism, they are about to be arrested when a tragic accident forces Alu to flee his village. Pursued by a misguided police officer, Alu finds his way through Calcutta to Goa and on to a trawler that runs illegal immigrants to Africa. Tracing Alu’s journey across two continents, The Circle of Reason is an exceptional novel by one of India’s most celebrated writers in English.
The Calcutta Chromosome
A fascinating and seductive writer!’ –The Times
In this extraordinary novel, Amitav Ghosh navigates through time and genres to present a unique tale. Beginning at an unspecified time in the future and ranging back to the late nineteenth century, the reader follows the adventures of the enigmatic L. Murugan. An authority on the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir Ronald Ross, who solved the malaria puzzle in Calcutta in 1898, Murugan is in search of the elusive ‘Calcutta Chromosome’. With its astonishing range of characters, advanced computer science, religious cults and wonderful portraits of Victorian and contemporary India, The Calcutta Chromosome expands the scope of the novel as we know it, as Amitav Ghosh takes on the avatar of a science thriller writer.
Ibis Trilogy
Finalist of the Man Booker International Prize 2015
Shortlisted for The Economist Crossword Book Award and the Man Asian Literary Award 2011
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008
Sweeping across the currents of the Indian Ocean, onboard a vast ship Ibis, unfolds an epic saga about the Opium Wars between China and Britain. Bringing alive India’s vexed colonial past, this thrilling historical adventure journeys from the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the crowded waterways of nineteenth-century Canton to the blazing war fields of China. Enriched with breathtaking detail, an orchestra of pidgin words and a panorama of characters, the Ibis Trilogy is a triumph of literature.
Valmiki Ramayan
Maharishi Valmiki penned the story of a figure that has come to be known as the very picture of humility, success, charm and morality-the one and only Lord Rama. His was a life that was not only lived morally but also while making the best of times when the means were limited. It was thus that he was dubbed as ‘maryadapurushottam’. This is one of the closest and best translations of this story of his remarkable life.
No Onions Nor Garlic
Amandeep, Murugesh, Rufus and Sundar are bucks who talk dirty for the same reason that they remove the mufflers from their motorcycle exhausts-it makes them feel like men. Like libertines.
To their hormonal despair, when Professor Ram stages his remake of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at their college fest, he casts these four as fairies. The farce that follows gradually takes over the lives of the rest of the characters in this achingly funny novel about the pratfalls that accompany caste pride.
On and off the campus of Chennai University, you will encounter onion-and-garlic-free TamBrahms who rewrite Shakespeare to uphold the Hindu order, smug NRIs who call the shots in matrimonials, visiting Canadians who are aghast at the plight of Dalits (pronounced ‘daylights’) and, at the apex of the whole tumbling structure, a bibulous builder who invokes the gods even as he defrauds his clients.
Tailing the characters around this plot is an unseen but all-seeing spectator. You may never guess who that is, but will laugh all the way to the answer.
Love Knows No LoC
A cross-border romance like no other!
Zoya, a twenty-five-year-old Pakistani pop star, meets emerging Indian cricketer Kabeer while he is on tour in the country to play a match to promote Indo-Pak friendship.
One thing leads to another and soon Kabeer and Zoya are inseparable. As their love for each other grows stronger, Zoya leaves Pakistan to be with Kabeer, only to return a few months later following a misunderstanding.
In Pakistan, Zoya is gloomy and sulking, rethinking her connection with Kabeer.
In India, a confused Kabeer is still hopeful of meeting Zoya.
As their relationship is put to the test in the wake of mounting tensions between the two countries, they both stumble across a long-buried truth that will forever change the course of their lives.
The Best of Roald Dahl
Twenty tales to curdle your blood and scorch your soul, chosen from Roald Dahl’s bestsellers-Over to You, Someone Like You, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch
Hypnotized from the first sentence, you will remain spellbound as Roald Dahl unravels his fiendish fictions with their satisfying twist-in-the-tale finales, as he leads you through the dangers of gambling for high stakes over wine, the perils of being a vegetarian and the macabre consequences of a night-time seduction . . .
The Best of Roald Dahl is, quite simply, Roald Dahl at his sinister best.
The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
A collector’s item containing all the stories from Roald Dahl’s world-famous books-Over to You, Someone like You, Kiss Kiss and Switch Bitch-plus eight tales of the unexpected
‘The absolute master of the twist-in-the-tale’ Observer
‘Roald Dahl is one of the few writers whose work can accurately be described as addictive’ Irish Times
‘These stories pack their punch . . . [The] repeated serving right of villains never quite softens the hard-boiled, even cynical, strain in Dahl’s vision of humanity, and it’s that ruthless unsentimentalism that is Dahl’s greatest attraction’ Observer
‘Dahl is too good a storyteller to become predictable, so you never know whether the tyrant or the tyrannized will win in the end’ Daily Telegraph