The Hungry Tide

Amitav Ghosh

ISBN 10: 0007141777 / ISBN 13: 9780007141777

Published by London: Harpercollins Publishers, 2004

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0007141777I4N00

Synopsis:

A profound and absorbing saga from the Internationally Bestselling and Man Booker Prize shortlisted author

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.

About the Author:

The author was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and northern India. Educated in India and Britain, he now lives in New York.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Hungry Tide
Publisher: London: Harpercollins Publishers
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket