We enter the puzzling maze of his new novel, Gun Island, holding the thread of one such word — bundook, derived from al-Bunduqqiya, the Arabic word for Venice. While The Hungry Tide was a masterly evocation of place — an endlessly elusive, morphing one — Gun Island remains unmoored. In The Hungry Tide, Ghosh had created the incantatory rhythm of water through words. In its last pages, Gun Island turns into an action-packed adventure that ends on the seas with a miracle of nature. But from this faithful Amitav Ghosh reader, this is only faint praise.

Source: Indian Express June 15, 2019 04:41 UTC