Call number
FIC GHO
Collection
Genres
Publication
Mariner Books (2006), Edition: Reprint, 352 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: Three lives collide on an island off India: "An engrossing tale of caste and culture... introduces readers to a little-known world."â??Entertainment Weekly Off the easternmost coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. For settlers here, life is extremely precarious. Attacks by tigers are common. Unrest and eviction are constant threats. At any moment, tidal floods may rise and surge over the land, leaving devastation in their wake. In this place of vengeful beauty, the lives of three people collide. Piya Roy is a marine biologist, of Indian descent but stubbornly American, in search of a rare, endangered river dolphin. Her journey begins with a disaster when she is thrown from a boat into crocodile-infested waters. Rescue comes in the form of a young, illiterate fisherman, Fokir. Although they have no language between them, they are powerfully drawn to each other, sharing an uncanny instinct for the ways of the sea. Piya engages Fokir to help with her research and finds a translator in Kanai Dutt, a businessman from Delhi whose idealistic aunt and uncle are longtime settlers in the Sundarbans. As the three launch into the elaborate backwaters, they are drawn unawares into the hidden undercurrents of this isolated world, where political turmoil exacts a personal toll as powerful as the ravaging tide. From the national bestselling author of Gun Island, The Hungry Tide was a winner of the Crossword Book Prize and a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize. "A great swirl of political, social, and environmental issues, presented through a story that's full of romance, suspense, and poetry."â??The Washington Post "Masterful."â??Publishers Weekly (starred rev… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member vpfluke
This novel brings together strands of marine biology, man eating tigers, and the special human history of the Sundarban islands located in the delta of area of the Bay of Bengal. A young American biologist of Indian heritage confronts the morays that she at first does not understand. A complex love
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story weaves together people whose background and motivations occasionally rub against one another. I felt like I was being given a guided tour through a country I probably will never visit, but it was always enticing in an oblique way for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member skent
Loved this book - a love story, incredible portrayal of this part of the world (Subdurbans in the Bay of Bengal) which is a world heritage site. Great characters.
LibraryThing member labfs39
Piya is a young American woman of Indian descent who is in the Sundarbans to study the the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella). Kanai is an Indian translator and playboy visiting his aunt. The two meet on the train, and Kanai extends an invitation to Piya to visit Lusibari, the island where his aunt
The chapters alternate between Piya's and Kanai's stories, and then with the diary of Kanai's uncle as well. Piya's research with the dolphins is discussed in some detail, as is the ecology and history of the Sundarbans. The diary of Kanai's uncle is concerned mainly with the Marichjhapi massacre, the forced removal of refugees from a government protected forest reserve in 1979. But it's not dry reading, for all of this is the backdrop for an adventure story complete with man-eating tigers and a cyclone.
The first half of the book is a bit slow with a lot of background on the islands, but I found it interesting as I knew nothing about the area. The second half of the book speeds up for a page-turning climax.
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lives. He is visiting there under duress, having only been there once before as a boy, but his aunt says he's been left a packet of papers by his deceased uncle, and she wants him to retrieve them in person. He thinks Piya would be a welcome distraction. Piya, however, is eager to get started with her survey and sets off on a hired boat with a government keeper. Before long, she realizes she is in trouble, and ends up with a fisherman and his son instead. Despite the language barrier, she feels instant empathy with Fokir, and they make significant progress in her project. After several days they head for Lusibari, where Kanai and Fokir's wife wait.The chapters alternate between Piya's and Kanai's stories, and then with the diary of Kanai's uncle as well. Piya's research with the dolphins is discussed in some detail, as is the ecology and history of the Sundarbans. The diary of Kanai's uncle is concerned mainly with the Marichjhapi massacre, the forced removal of refugees from a government protected forest reserve in 1979. But it's not dry reading, for all of this is the backdrop for an adventure story complete with man-eating tigers and a cyclone.
The first half of the book is a bit slow with a lot of background on the islands, but I found it interesting as I knew nothing about the area. The second half of the book speeds up for a page-turning climax.
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LibraryThing member thejohnsmith
A beautifully written story that pulled me into the life and times of the characters and the world they experience. Very enjoyable.
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
I read The Hungry Tide (2004) because I wanted to learn more about the Sundarbans, the worlds largest mangrove forest. It is situated along the ocean border of India and Bangladesh at the delta of the Ganges River. I'd never heard of Sundarbans before, and was fascinated by a large wilderness area
The novel delivered on my expectations of immersion in foreign culture through a well told story. The plot is slow and labyrinthine and mysterious as it reveals its secrets, like the swamps, with sudden moments of furious danger. It is also a cultural novel. India is a country mostly of poor farmers, and their point of contact with middle-class urban professionals is a large part of the novels focus. These class interactions are helpful in understanding Indian culture today, as it rises out of third world status, at least from a middle-class perspective, for whom the novel was written for, and by. It's not a "great" novel by any means (it won't stand the test of time as India continues to change), but its enjoyable, particularly as a vehicle for learning about the Sundarbans.
I listened to the audiobook version and believe it is better than reading - the narrator (native Indian) brings the characters alive with accents and pauses and inflections, rounds them out in a way I would not have been able to imagine otherwise. It greatly adds to the sense of place in an already atmospheric novel.
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so close to one of the most densely populated regions of the world. The reason it has remained so wild is because it is one of the most dangerous places in the world: cyclones, man-eating tigers, snakes, crocodiles. Yet about 4 million substance fishermen make a living there, with a high annual death toll (over 200 deaths a year from tigers alone). It is truly a land of exotic beauty and danger, where the ancient and modern collide, fertile soil for a romantic novel. The novel delivered on my expectations of immersion in foreign culture through a well told story. The plot is slow and labyrinthine and mysterious as it reveals its secrets, like the swamps, with sudden moments of furious danger. It is also a cultural novel. India is a country mostly of poor farmers, and their point of contact with middle-class urban professionals is a large part of the novels focus. These class interactions are helpful in understanding Indian culture today, as it rises out of third world status, at least from a middle-class perspective, for whom the novel was written for, and by. It's not a "great" novel by any means (it won't stand the test of time as India continues to change), but its enjoyable, particularly as a vehicle for learning about the Sundarbans.
I listened to the audiobook version and believe it is better than reading - the narrator (native Indian) brings the characters alive with accents and pauses and inflections, rounds them out in a way I would not have been able to imagine otherwise. It greatly adds to the sense of place in an already atmospheric novel.
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LibraryThing member Nehamahajan
Wow! i did not realize how much the book gave me until i finished reading it today. beautiful language, capturing imagination and mesmerizing effect of the spirit of the story. i really enjoyed 'dukhey's redemption' ballad. and the whole of it. :)
LibraryThing member fourbears
Kanai and Piya (short for Piyali) meet on a train heading for the tide country southwest of Kolkatta (Calcutta). Both are Bengali, but live their lives at a fair distance from their roots. Kanai lives in New Dehli, running his own successful translation business that caters to a growing business
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community. Piya grew up in Seattle where he parents immigrated and she never even learned to speak Bangla. Kanai is going to visit an aunt he hasn’t seen since childhood when he was banished to her town in the tide country because of insolence and misbehavior at school. Now she wants him to go over some papers of her deceased husband, Kanai’s uncle. Piya is a cetologist who studies river dolphins of which there are supposed to be plenty in the river delta country toward which they are heading. Kanai, a bachelor and womanizer, finds Piya attractive and a good prospect for a holiday affair. Piya is somewhat turned off by Kanai’s sophistication and air of superiority, far too independent to fall in with his plans. But he has one thing she doesn’t have—fluency in Bangla, as well as connections in the islands.The story introduces a part of the world I didn’t know anything about, hadn’t in fact ever heard of, though I had heard of floods in Bangladesh. It’s the mouth of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and some other rivers too at the top of the Bay of Bengal. The “tide country”, including some of both India and Bangladesh, is a series of low-lying islands called the Sundarbans. So low-lying that in order to be inhabited, they need to have embankment’s behind which it’s safe to build; otherwise just ordinary tides would flood houses and businesses. Huge crocodiles inhabit the waters and tigers roam the uninhabited land and visit civilization often enough. And like the Mississippi Delta in the US, the land is subject to powerful storms, called cyclones, not hurricanes, in Asia. The human settlements in the Sundarbans are isolated and deaths from crocodiles and tigers are common. Cyclones wash over entire islands and rearrange the land, wiping out one island and creating another. There’s must emphasis on preservation of the wild environments, sometimes to the exclusion of the people who live there; the government isn’t particularly concerned about death by tiger or even by cyclone. In the sense the lives of the tigers are more valuable to India than the lives of the people.Piya has studied river dolphins in the Mekong and other Asian locations and is used to working alone. She hires a boat run by the militant forest police and ends up regretting it. After she’s thrown off in an unfortunate accident she hooks up with a crab fisherman and his son in a small, unpowered boat. They have no language in common, but manage to make themselves understood and under Piya’s instruction, Fokir uses the boat to track the paths of the Irawaddy Dolphins they find there. They stay out for several days and collect significant data. Piya sees a project worthy of her life’s work in describing these lives and habitats of these dolphins. She’s used to living for days in primitive conditions, consumes mostly nutrition bars and bottled water wherever she is. Fokir turns out to the be perfect research companion.Meanwhile back at Lusibari (Lucy’s Island as named by the British, though this one is a fictional island) Kanai is focused on his uncle’s papers and the uncle, Nirmal’s, fight for the displaced people living on one of the deserted islands, Morichjhapi. Kanai’s interest is peaked because as a young boy he’s met Kuma, a young woman at the time, who’d worked with his aunt. Separately Piya and Kanai become emotionally involved with the islands and their people, he by focusing on Kuma and the past, she by focusing on Fokir and the present. It turns out that Fokir is Kuma’s son. The climax of the book is a trip on the boat of Fokir’s uncle, with Piya along to direct the research and Kanai to translate.Ghosh skillfully weaves Piya’s story and Kanai’s together and at the same time weaves together the fabric of the past and the present of the Sundarbans, science and literature, politics and business, public and private life. Show Less
LibraryThing member akeela
The setting – the Sundarbans, an immense archipelago of islands between the sea and plains of Bengal, on the east coast of India – is as important a character in this novel as the other personalities. It provides a tranquil background fraught with secrets and hidden dangers.
Against this
There are a number of stories and myths within the story, as well as the struggles of the settlers in the region that make for interesting reading. All in all, a good read.
Against this
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setting, we have the impassioned Piya, an American of Indian parentage who has come here to pursue her life's work – finding and researching rare dolphins in the waters of the Sundarbans. Add to the mix Kanai Dutt, a womanising Indian businessman who is there at the request of his aunt, a local figure, and Fokir, an illiterate man, who understands the waters and Piya's enthusiasm and is able to take her to the heart of the action. There is also Fokir's unsettled wife, Moyna.There are a number of stories and myths within the story, as well as the struggles of the settlers in the region that make for interesting reading. All in all, a good read.
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LibraryThing member glindapenguin
I came across this book in the library, I'd been recommended Sea of Poppies but I'm always a little wary of starting a trilogy when the rest of the books aren't out yet, so I looked for other books by the same author. The Hungry Tide is an utterly fascinating book for all that it doesn't have a
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huge amount of plot going on. I honestly couldn't have given a toss about the potential romance between Piya and Kanai. Piya's research, her exploring the rivers with Horen and Tutul as they follow the paths of the river dolphins, the animals and geography of the Sundarbans, Kanai's uncle's notebook and the hospital his aunt runs were far more interesting to me. The tide country and its people and history were vividly rendered and I could have gone on reading about it and the Dolphins for another 400 pages. Show Less
LibraryThing member brarian
This novel felt particularly well realized--it took me to a place I had never heard of, the Sundarbans, (thank God, not another book set in London or New York), and let me fall in love with this singular place and the people who live there, as does Piya (the Indian-American marine biologist). Ghosh
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is now on my list of favorite novelists. Show Less
LibraryThing member whirled
As far as I can recall, The Hungry Tide was the first piece of Indian fiction I've read. It has whet my appetite to learn more about a region of the world I know little about, though I don't know that I'll return to this author. Perhaps something may have been lost in translation, but Ghosh seemed
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to take a long time to build momentum (which would have been fine if the writing itself had not been a bit spartan and dull). I found the parts involving animals - regarding Piya's dolphin research and the final, terrifying encounter with a tiger - were the strongest and most interesting. Mildly entertaining. Show Less
LibraryThing member punxsygal
India, Sunderbans, river dophins, science
LibraryThing member TadAD
I enjoyed the book a lot when I read it. When I think back about it, however, I realize that it is the view on life in the Sundarbans mangrove forests that I enjoyed so much. The main characters did not seem to have a great deal of depth to them. In fact, I was somewhat surprised at the ending as,
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without the emotional depth, it didn't seem that believable to me. Nonetheless, I recommend this as a good read. Show Less
LibraryThing member judithann
An interesting read: I liked the way the different people and their priorities were described. There was the Indian-background woman from America, the well-to-do Indian city-man, and the villagers who still lived quite a simple life.
I did not find the story too compelling though, but it was
I did not find the story too compelling though, but it was
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entertaining enough to keep me going till the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member nandinimoitra
a good book. has a colloquil touch in it.reflects the distress of the displaced people
LibraryThing member BCCJillster
Finished The Hungry Tide last night and I have to say, it's a really good book; just different enough without veering into the experimental. Good solid writing, relatable characters, good background information about the region and the study of river dolphins there, folk tales; maybe not for those
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without a bit of patience but there's a lot more plot than I expected for a book of 'place.' I'd say a 4 and will definitely read more by Ghosh. Show Less
LibraryThing member bysunil
This book is slow paced as well as a dull read.
The only thing i could appreciate about it is the narration style.
The only thing i could appreciate about it is the narration style.
LibraryThing member manguni
One of the many enjoyable aspects of literature from outside of the West is that its locus is often a sense of place, and Ghosh's book is no exception. 'The Hungry Tide' is as much about the physical and cultural construction of the Sundarbans as it is about the characters. Much to Ghosh's credit,
With such a rich and culturally nuanced view of how the residents of Sundarbans lives are linked, you would expect that Ghosh's characters would be just as vivid and nuanced. This is not the case. I was dissapointed by the flatness of the main characters, who other than the local Fokir, who we come to know through his kinship with his environment, are very one-dimensional. Although the book evokes a place, the main characters in fact explore another theme - the experience of those with no place, of people who don't belong, don't have a history that ties them to any particular locale. Both Piya, the nomadic researcher, and the city academic who returns home to visit his Aunt in Sundarbans, seem to function as rather shallow examples of lives lived with no connections to a home or homeland. They lack the complexity of the characters who are perihperal in the story, such as Fokir's wife, who we feel for in her obvious humanity and complexity.
The very pat resolution of the novel also bothered me. The main characters seem to find their place, unproblematically, in Sundarbans, despite the underlying storyline that explicates the extreme risk and difficulty of life there. Was Ghosh trying to make the point that modern, educated people without place can settle anywhere because of the shallow nature of their connections? I'm not certain that was his intent. Either way, whatever statement he was trying to make about social class, place and culture in this novel became muddled somewhere along the line.
Overall, an interesting read both culturally and geographically, but not a particularly gripping story. Will be enjoyable for anyone who is interested in Indian history, society and language.
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he is able to weave local languages into the text, explaining their meaning through the stories that connect the people who live there to a beautiful and dangerous place. The novel is rich in the way it makes us understand the way that human life has evolved in tandem with the challenges of living the tidelands and mangroves where the story is set. With such a rich and culturally nuanced view of how the residents of Sundarbans lives are linked, you would expect that Ghosh's characters would be just as vivid and nuanced. This is not the case. I was dissapointed by the flatness of the main characters, who other than the local Fokir, who we come to know through his kinship with his environment, are very one-dimensional. Although the book evokes a place, the main characters in fact explore another theme - the experience of those with no place, of people who don't belong, don't have a history that ties them to any particular locale. Both Piya, the nomadic researcher, and the city academic who returns home to visit his Aunt in Sundarbans, seem to function as rather shallow examples of lives lived with no connections to a home or homeland. They lack the complexity of the characters who are perihperal in the story, such as Fokir's wife, who we feel for in her obvious humanity and complexity.
The very pat resolution of the novel also bothered me. The main characters seem to find their place, unproblematically, in Sundarbans, despite the underlying storyline that explicates the extreme risk and difficulty of life there. Was Ghosh trying to make the point that modern, educated people without place can settle anywhere because of the shallow nature of their connections? I'm not certain that was his intent. Either way, whatever statement he was trying to make about social class, place and culture in this novel became muddled somewhere along the line.
Overall, an interesting read both culturally and geographically, but not a particularly gripping story. Will be enjoyable for anyone who is interested in Indian history, society and language.
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LibraryThing member coolmama
Sweeping, big novel about the Tide Country in India.
Two narratives that somewhat parallel eachother in time and place. Kania is going back to his Aunt's home in Lusibari, India to read a notebook that his uncle left for him. While on the train, he meets Piya, a young woman of indian origin from
Didn't love it...felt is was just too long and until the very very end just didnt' hold my personal interest in what happens to the characters.
Two narratives that somewhat parallel eachother in time and place. Kania is going back to his Aunt's home in Lusibari, India to read a notebook that his uncle left for him. While on the train, he meets Piya, a young woman of indian origin from
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Seattle who is in India to research dolphins. Their paths cross.Didn't love it...felt is was just too long and until the very very end just didnt' hold my personal interest in what happens to the characters.
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LibraryThing member vonChillan
The Sundarbans have always been a subject of awe to me, since the days I read Salgari books as a child. In this novel they keep the mistery, the allure as well as thedanger. Tigers, political refugees, river dolphins and much, much more is brought into play in this, probably the most accomplished
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book by the Bengali autho Show Less
LibraryThing member veracite
Seduced is the word for this book: seduced by mangroves, even though I know them, seduced by every character, each one lovely and full and imperfect. Amitav Ghosh seems very clever, the novel's structure so well-made that the slow pace of the events does not mean a slow narrative. I'm keen to read
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his other books. Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
I started this, but I couldn't get into it at all. I'll release it at the next Nottingham meet-up, and hope that it finds someone who will get on better with it than me.
LibraryThing member rajveerspace
the story tells everything about the sundarban.
very nicely researched
very nicely researched
LibraryThing member kaida46
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
This book takes place in the Sunbardan Islands, India/Bangladesh, a mangrove area in the Bay of Bengal where three rivers mesh and intertwine. An area of extremes, from the rising and lowering tide to the tigers and other forms of wildlife (many dangerous) that live
This book takes place in the Sunbardan Islands, India/Bangladesh, a mangrove area in the Bay of Bengal where three rivers mesh and intertwine. An area of extremes, from the rising and lowering tide to the tigers and other forms of wildlife (many dangerous) that live
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there and the people who eke out a living in such a place. The author creates a great sense of place in the story and the setting is truly another character in the book. The thoughtful writing, while telling an interesting story, gives your mind something to chew on as you read. It keeps your interest and invites you to continue reading for an immersive experience. The past and the present continue to influence the lives of the people in the area, and you get a bit of background to why things are the way they are and its affect on the residents as you follow along with a dolphin hunting marine biologist, a brave 20 something of Indian descent but born elsewhere. Skillfully constructed and a good read. (5 stars) Show Less
LibraryThing member Dariah
Amitav Ghosh has an extraordinary way of writing about people – their lives, motivations and personal identity. The stories of his novels are mostly taking place in India and Southeast Asia and give an understanding of what life was and is like in these countries – also containing a lot of
His novel The Hungry Tide takes place in the Indian Sundarbans where the lives of three very different people cross: marine cetologist Piyali, self-centered translator Kanai and local illiterate fisherman Fokir. The novel is covering a variety of topics like humanism, environmentalism and the Morichjhanpi massacre (1978/79), all woven together to one main story.
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Asian folklore – as the author himself has Indian roots. His style of writing is clearly different from the Angloamerican narrative style.His novel The Hungry Tide takes place in the Indian Sundarbans where the lives of three very different people cross: marine cetologist Piyali, self-centered translator Kanai and local illiterate fisherman Fokir. The novel is covering a variety of topics like humanism, environmentalism and the Morichjhanpi massacre (1978/79), all woven together to one main story.
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Awards
Kiriyama Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2006)
Crossword Book Award (Winner — English Fiction — 2004)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2005)
Notable Books List (2006)
Pages
352
ISBN
061871166X / 9780618711666
UPC
046442711661