Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye
Reviewed by
Saptarshi Das
Independent
Researcher
Bankura,
West Bengal, India
Ghost-Eye | Novel | Amitav Ghosh |
Fourth Estate, 2026, pp.
325, INR 799
Ghost-Eye: A Tale of Climate Crisis and
Reincarnation
Amitav Ghosh's Ghost-Eye is
part of his Sunderban trilogy in which The
Hungry Tide and Gun Island came
before. Many characters from the earlier books (like Piya, Nirmal, Nilima) from
the earlier books reappear in Ghost-Eye.
Despite the same setting and some of the old characters returning to the
narrative, Ghost-Eye has an
independent storyline, and even the first-time readers would easily step into
the story.
Ghost-Eye deals with two timelines and two narrative techniques.
One timeline is set in the past. It is 1969 Calcutta. This timeline has
third-person narrative, and shows how psychologist Dr. Shoma Bose treats a
3-year-old (Varsha Gupta) Marwari girl, who remembers her past life.
The other timeline is Brooklyn 2020, when COVID brings the world to a
standstill. It is a first-person narrative by Dinu, the nephew of Dr. Shoma
Bose. Dinu gets in touch with a group of environmental activists who trace the
case-study of the Marwari girl, written by Dr. Shoma Bose. Now, the present
must trace the past and find out what involved the mystery of the
reincarnation.
The first part of the novel reads almost like a thriller. Every moment
there is suspense and the readers try to guess what might be there behind
Varsha Gupta's fondness for fish. Indeed, a wealthy Marwari girl speaking with
a dialect and craving fish is a culture shock to the family who attempts to keep
it a secret.
Ghosh is a fabulous raconteur and his seamless blending of the two
timelines is a masterstroke displaying that the threat to Sunderban ecology
will always be there, albeit in new forms. In 1969, it was the artificial
cultivation of tiger prawns which threatened the freshwater pond. In 2020, the
development of an energy power plant risks the lives and livelihood of the
people of Sunderban.
Tipu is a young man and his NGO fights against the proposed power plant.
His language (Pops!) seems to suggest that he represents Gen Z and cares for
the environment.
Tipu's two eyes have two different colours known as
"heterochromia"—which symbolize some people might have two
visions—spiritual as well as physical.
Ghosh is known for his indefatigable research and this book is not an
exception. It begins with a possible case of reincarnation so Carl Jung,
synchronicity—the Petrozavodsk phenomenon—Dr. Ian Stevenson—all the names and
terms come into the narrative.
The book also questions the process of knowledge, and hints that often
first-hand knowledge is deeper than the bookish ones. The fishing community
understands the environment better than the environmentalists.
In the 1960s section, Ghosh wrote about the Communist Movement, to
strikes and loadshedding, to capture the mood of the time, which could have
been whittled down a bit. Also, Varsha claims that she used to have
"dudheswar" rice at home, in her previous birth. Given her poverty,
affording dudheswar seems difficult.
Compared to the first part, the second part is less tight and the book
has a predictable ending, yet it is a deeply-researched book on a serious
topic, written in a beautiful prose which makes it unputdownable.