The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

The Hungry Tide

Amitav Ghosh

A teacher comes to Lusibari. His wife sets up a women's co-operative and transforms the community. A woman comes to study dolphins in the Sundarbans, and the lives of others are changed because she visits Lusibari, following a chance meeting. And behind all this lies the story of a struggle for land and justice, and the struggle to live in a hostile environment. And then there are the tigers. An epic, sweeping tale of what it means to be human.

Extract
'I saw it, Piya. I saw the tiger.' Now Horen and Fokir crowded around him too, so he added in Bangla, 'It was there, the cat - I saw it.'
Horen shook his head. 'There was nothing there,' he said. 'We looked, Fokir and I. We looked and saw nothing. And if it had been there, you wouldn't be here now.'
Parallels
  • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  • Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
  • Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie