2 – The Hungry Tide, by Amitav Ghosh
WHY I PICKED IT: I have enjoyed lots of Ghosh’s other work
ELAPSED TIME: 2 Weeks
RATING: Good
WHY I PICKED IT: I have enjoyed lots of Ghosh’s other work
ELAPSED TIME: 2 Weeks
RATING: Good
Piya is an Indo-American marine biologist who is studying
the Orcaella (an endangered river dolphin) in the Bay of Bengal. Fokir is a local fisherman who she hires as
his guide (despite not speaking any language in common. Kanai is an Indian businessman, returning to
a place he had visited as a child at the behest of his Aunt, to read a notebook
left to him by his long deceased Uncle.
The story switches between the present day, where Piya is seeking to understand an unusual daily migratory pattern, while navigating an unfamiliar physical and social environment, and the 70s, through a tale told in the notebook, of Bengali refugees settling and forcibly removed from the Morichjhanpi Island. That tale is a comparatively minor part of the story, but plays a key role in describing several characters’ backstory, and educating the reader on a forgotten piece of history.
The story switches between the present day, where Piya is seeking to understand an unusual daily migratory pattern, while navigating an unfamiliar physical and social environment, and the 70s, through a tale told in the notebook, of Bengali refugees settling and forcibly removed from the Morichjhanpi Island. That tale is a comparatively minor part of the story, but plays a key role in describing several characters’ backstory, and educating the reader on a forgotten piece of history.
As an early work of Ghosh, you can see that he is honing
what has become his style – multiple, intertwined, characters and stories and a
lot of forgotten history – but it is nowhere near as polished as his more
recent work.
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