Indian author Amitav Ghosh publishes first novel in 7 years. Why so long?
Ahead of his Hong Kong International Literary Festival appearance, Ghosh talks about his new book Ghost-Eye and re-reading earlier works
It is seven years since Indian author Amitav Ghosh last published a novel.
For many readers, he is a fiction writer best known for The Glass Palace (2000) and his Ibis trilogy comprising Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015). These are set against historically accurate moments during the British Empire, but are works of imagination. Like his readers, he says he thinks of himself as “primarily a novelist”.
With his new novel, Ghost-Eye, he has returned to his literary roots.
“I was desperate to get back to fiction,” he explains in an email from his home in New York. “And, luckily for me, an interesting story happened to come into my mind.”
At the story’s core is a three-year-old girl who begins to recall her past life as a fisherwoman. But Ghosh is wary of the word “reincarnation”.