Rebirth, regeneration and cycles of life

If you loved reading The Shadow Lines (1988) and The Hungry Tide (2004), written by Amitav Ghosh, chances are that his latest novel, Ghost-Eye, will blow your mind.

- CHINTAN GIRISH MODI

He writes, yet again, with deep affection for Calcutta (now Kolkata) and the Sundarbans, and from a moral responsibility to make amends for the ecological harm that human beings have caused.

It opens with a deceptively simple premise: What happens when a three-year-old girl, raised in a strictly vegetarian Marwari household in Calcutta of the 1960s, suddenly demands a meal of fish and rice one day, and refuses to eat anything at all until she has her way? This, however, is no ordinary craving. This child, named Varsha, who now lives in a sprawling mansion, remembers a past life where she grew up in a mud house by a river, where catching and cooking fish was part of everyday life. She remembers the exact location of that house, and the names of her parents.

Her father, Abhay, a photographer by training, and an anomaly in a business family, seeks the help of a psychologist called Shoma to help his daughter. The author's gentle treatment of the relationship between Abhay and Varsha is one of the most beautiful aspects of this novel because it shows that there are mature alternatives to tough love, which prioritise respect over fear.