The Hungry Tide (P)

Literary awards - Kiriyama Prize Nominee for Fiction (2006), Crossword Book Award for Fiction (2004).

From the author of The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide is a richly woven saga set in the bustling city of Calcutta and the lush, mysterious archipelago of islands in the Bay of Bengal. Inspired by an Indian myth, the novel draws on the legend of the Ganges River’s descent from the heavens, its powerful force only tamed by the god Shiva, who caught the torrent in his dreadlocks. It is only when the river reaches the Bay of Bengal that it unravels, separating into thousands of wandering strands to create the Sundarbans—an immense stretch of mangrove forest, a half-drowned land where the waters of the Himalayas meet the tides of the sea.

In this unique and wild setting, The Hungry Tide unfolds. The Sundarbans is a world where the tides stretch more than 100 miles inland, and every day, vast swathes of forest disappear, only to re-emerge hours later, dense and teeming with life. It is a land of constant change and hidden dangers, home to rare wildlife, resilient communities, and profound mysteries.

Amitav Ghosh’s novel explores the lives of those who call this ever-shifting landscape home. It is a tale of survival, identity, and the delicate balance between man and nature. The Hungry Tide is an epic story of place and people, a captivating journey through one of the most intriguing and perilous regions of the world.