The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh is a prize-winning writer originally from Calcutta, India, whose work, especially the 2008 novel Sea of Poppies, has earned some very positive reviews around the blogosphere. For some time now I have wanted to read something by Ghosh. Sea of Poppies, the first book of a trilogy, would have been the logical choice, especially as I had already read some praising reviews and had also listened to a npr books podcast of Amitav Ghosh himself reading from the book. I actually did borrow Sea of Poppies from the library earlier this year, but did not get into reading it at the time. Then I saw The Calcutta Chromosome in a book store. "A novel of fevers, delirium & discovery" sounded very intriguing. As I'm trying to limit my book buying to the minimun I stayed strong and did not buy the book, I borrowed it from the library instead. :)

The Calcutta Chromosome is a curious book. Partly set in the near future, partly in the 1990s and in the last years of the 19th - earlier part of the 20th century, the novel weaves together people, events and destinies that initially seem unreleted or even random. In the future we have Antar, a clerk working for the International Water Council, who, through his computer, Ava, unearths an old ID card that once belonged to an old colleague of his, L. Murugan. Murugan went missing in 1995 and now Antar decides to find out what happened to him. In 1995 there is Murugan coming to Calcutta trying to find out more about Ronald Ross, a Nobel Prize -winning scientists who studied malaria at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Also in the 1990s Calcutta are Sonali Das, a famous actress turned journalist, and her young colleague from the Calcutta magazine, Urmila Roy, and Phulboni, a famous writer. And then starting from the last years of the 19th century there are Ronald Ross and some other scientists trying to find what causes malaria. And there is even a certain Madame Salminen, a Finnish head of The Society of Spiritualists and the arch-rival of Mme Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society!

The Calcutta Chromosome doesn't easily fit into any category. Is it scifi, because part of the story is set in the future? Or maybe it's a historical novel? Or mystery? A book about a conspiracy? Aren't there even some paranormal aspects in the story? Ghosh mentions on his website that the novel was described as "a kind of mystery thriller" by the India Times, but I'm not even trying to categorize it! All I'll say is that in The Calcutta Chromosome Ghosh has weaved an intriguing story that keeps you reading on and on.

As this was my first Ghosh I have no idea whether this novel is somehow typical for him, but it surely made me want to read more by him, so much so, that book buying ban or not, a week ago on Saturday I went to downtown and bought myself a paperback copy of Sea of Poppies. :)

Tha Calcutta Chromosome also inspired me to continue with another book set in India, Leela's Book by Alice Albinia that I already mentioned in my Teaser Tuesday post, but more about Leela's Book later.