Ghosh, Amitav (1956-…), is an Indian novelist. A major theme in Ghosh’s work is the relationship between modern Indian characters, India’s past, and the world outside of India, especially the Middle East and the United Kingdom. His novels employ multiple storylines and settings, and he has been praised for his ambitious and complicated narratives and language.
Ghosh has written several novels in English. They include The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), The Glass Palace (2000), and The Hungry Tide (2004). The Circle of Reason follows the life of an Indian boy from his life in an Indian village through his time in a city in the Middle East, and in North Africa. The Shadow Lines follows the relations between an Indian family and an English family over several decades. The novel explores the conflicts between the characters imposed by cultural differences and political forces. The Calcutta Chromosome is a science-fiction thriller. The Glass Palace is an epic novel about British colonial rule in India. The Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans , a giant mangrove forest at the mouth of the Ganges River. Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015) are a trilogy (three related novels) about the opium trade in Asia during the 1800’s.
In an Antique Land is a nonfiction work inspired by a letter that Ghosh found in an archive. The letter, written in the 1100’s from a merchant in India to one in the Middle East, sparks an exploration of the histories and cultures of India and the Middle East. The story in Gun Merchant (2019) employs fiction and folklore as it addresses such threats to the modern world as climate change. Ghosh’s essays have been collected in Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma (1998), The Imam and the Indian (2002), and Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times (2006).
Amitav Ghosh was born on July 11, 1956, in Calcutta (now Kolkata ), India. He studied at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and received a B.A. degree from Delhi University in 1976 and an M.A. degree in 1978. He earned a Ph.D. degree from Oxford University in England in 1982. He has taught at Delhi University, Columbia University, and Queens College, City University of New York.
