Product Description
The new novel from the author of The Glass Palace, the widely-acclaimed bestseller. The Hungry Tide is a rich, exotic saga set in Calcutta and in the vast archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal. An Indian myth says that when the river Ganges first descended from the heavens, the force of the cascade was so great that the earth would have been destroyed if it had not been for the god Shiva, who tamed the torrent by catching it in his dreadlocks. It is only when the Ganges approaches the Bay of Bengal that it frees itself and separates into thousands of wandering strands. The result is the Sundarbans, an immense stretch of mangrove forest, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas merge with the incoming tides of the sea. It is this vast archipelago of islands that provides the setting for Amitav Ghosh's new novel. In the Sundarbans the tides reach more than 100 miles inland and every day thousands of hectares of forest disappear only to re-emerge hours later. Dense as the mangrove forests are, from a human point of view it is only a little less barren than a desert. There is a terrible, vengeful beauty here, a place teeming with crocodiles, snakes, sharks and man-eating tigers. This is the only place on earth where man is more often prey than predator. And it is into this terrain that an eccentric, wealthy Scotsman named Daniel Hamilton tried to create a utopian society, of all races and religions, and conquer the might of the Sundarbans. In January 2001, a small ship arrives to conduct an ecological survey of this vast but little-known environment, and the scientists on board begin to trace the journeys of the descendants of this society.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 35 reviews)

Good read, but not Ghosh's best

This book kept me up past my bedtime last night, although I found it not entirely convincing. Still, parts were enthralling. Ghosh throws together an American cetacean researcher of Indian descent, a translator from New Delhi, an illiterate fisherman, and the turbulent landscape of the Sundarbans, and comes up with a tale that is part adventure story, part romance, part history and resonates with the hybrid mythology of its location throughout.

But while there is much to be savored in this novel, it flounders a bit in describing straightforward adult interactions--people explain themselves (in their thoughts and out loud) rather woodenly.

Still, it kept me reading, and I was glad to learn about a part of the world I'd barely even heard of. But I've enjoyed other Ghosh books more.
May 02, 2008

Hungry for more Amitav Ghosh!

Ghosh's writing transported me and them immersed me in another place that was completely unfamiliar and yet clearly portrayed. Good characters, interesting intertwined stories, worth your time if you like good writing. I wanted more when I finished. Now to decide which Ghosh novel to take up next...
February 20, 2008

Character is plot, plot is character

I think they say that character is plot and plot is character. This book proves that theory. The meticulous detail lavished on developing each character including Piyali Roy, Kanai Dutt, Fokir and countless others is what gives this book it's raison d'etre. The descriptions of the Sundarbans are exquisitely embroidered into a vast tapestry of emotions, characters, places, animals, nature, and philosophy. Definitely worth reading.
November 16, 2007

Cetologist

I have to admit I love books about India and tigers. "jungle child" by norah burke especially. first the good things about The Hungry Tide: 1.It was written as a series of flashbacks all equally interesting: american girl, snobby Indian fellow and his sad-sap uncle. 2. it takes place in an unknown-to-me-part of the world: an archipeligo off the eastern coast of india/bangladesh. 3. It concerns ecology and the preservation of animals whose existance is fatally threatened by humans. It kind of makes the case for the humans vis-a-vis endangered species. Like why shouldnt people move into crappy low-life places where tigers roam free and then why shouldnt the people kill the tigers who have nothing left to eat so they eat the settlers? So that's the good part. Now for the drawbacks: 1. the author is not really an especially good writer. I still dont understand how islands can be totally submerged when the tides come in and still have huge tigers running around when the tide goes out. Do the tigers sit on the tops of the trees half their lives or what? 2. The characters were not especially inteligible. None of them ellicited any emotions. They were just cardboard characters. Like: hey look here is a american girl with short hair who is a cetologist. she also eats power bars and rejects local food for months and months. thats a lot of power bars in her back pack. 3. The relations between the sexes were bitter and mean in every single case. Does that mean something special or is the author just a grouch?
September 18, 2007

Lasting impression

This is the third book by Amitav Ghosh which I have read now, after "In an Antique Land" and "Glass Palace". Each time I was not only gripped by the plot and the vivid descriptions, but I felt truly enriched by the many references to burning issues of our world. Among those three books I consider "The Hungry Tide" as the most finely worked-out novel. It provides a much-needed meditation on the relationship between man and nature, and between East and West.
September 09, 2007

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