Gun Island: Storyteller Amitav Ghosh effortlessly spans space and time in his latest novel

He was recently in Kolkata for a book signing session organised by the book's publisher Penguin India at the Starmark bookstore (in South City Mall). 

The book essentially revolves around Deen Datta, a dealer of rare books, whose world is turned upside down by a common word, Bundook, Gun.

Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way.

There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen's eyes to the realities of growing up in today's world; Rafi, with his desperate attempt to help someone in need; and Cinta, an old friend who provides the missing link in the story they are all a part of.

It is a journey which will upend everything he thought he knew about himself, about the Bengali legends of his childhood and about the world around him.

According to the publishing house, Gun Island is a beautifully realised novel which effortlessly spans space and time.

It is the story of a world on the brink, of increasing displacement and unstoppable transition.

But it is also a story of hope, of a man whose faith in the world and the future is restored by two remarkable women.

At the book signing session, Ghosh said he was eager to return to writing fiction after the Ibis Trilogy,

"Fiction is where I live," said Ghosh.

Interestingly, one of the characters, Piya Roy, had made her first appearance in his book 'Hungry Tide'. 

Said Ghosh, “The  characters  who you have lived with never go away. It was what happened with Piya. After The Hungry  Tide, I thought I was done with Piya. But she came back. It was not all my doing.  I am sure that the characters of the trilogy will come back in some ways.”

Indian mythology play a key role in the narrative.

“In many ways, folk tales and mythologies deal with our world more directly than modern literature," said Ghosh. "These Bengali stories. I had grown up listening to them. When I started reading them as texts, it really struck me – how much they address the phenomenon of  storms  and  animals, droughts and famines. The world that these tales  depict is a real world."

(Reporitng by Avirupa Das).