Publisher's Weekly Review
Ghosh's latest (after Flood of Fire) is an intellectual romp that traces Bengali folklore, modern human trafficking, and the devastating effects of climate change across generations and countries. Dinanath Datta, who goes by the more Americanized Deen, is an antiques and rare-books dealer in Brooklyn. While in Calcutta, Deen encounters the tale of the Bonduki Sadagar, or the gun merchant, a localized riff on the familiar Bengali tale of a merchant and Manasa Devi, the goddess of snakes and poisonous creatures. Intrigued, Deen pays a visit to the Sundarbans, the borderlands from which the myth originated. At the shrine said to be protected by Manasa Devi, Deen encounters a snake that bites one of the young men with him, with nonfatal but mystical consequences. Shaken, but convinced that it was just a freak coincidence, the rationalist Deen returns to America, where his trip still haunts him. A tumultuous year and a half later, under the patronage of his dear friend Cinta, a glamorous Italian academic, Deen arrives in Venice for the book's second half, where he befriends the local Bengali community and further uncovers the tale of the Bonduki Sadagar as he is drawn into relief efforts for the refugee crisis. Ghosh writes with deep intelligence and illuminating clarity about complex issues. This ambitious novel memorably draws connections among history, politics, and mythology. (Sept.)
Kirkus Review
In the face of apocalyptic climate change, an Indian immigrant searches for the truth behind a Bengali legend.Deen Datta travels each year from Brooklyn, where he works as a dealer in rare books and Asian antiquities, to his native Calcutta, "or Kolkata, as it is now formally known," visiting family and scouting new purchases. As Ghosh's (Flood of Fire, 2015, etc.) novel opens, a smart-alecky relative tells him the tale of a Bengali folk hero called the Gun Merchant, whose story is rooted in a shrine in the Sundarbans, "a tiger-infested mangrove forest" at the mouth of the Ganges. Another relative, an elderly woman who grew up in the islands, has more stories to telland so does Piya Roy, a young, female marine biologist who is studying the effects of climate change on whales and dolphins, once abundant in the storm-lashed Sundarbans. Deen is a collector not just of old things, but also of interesting friends from all over the world, such as the Italian scholar Giacinta Schiavon, who makes an urgent case for taking folktales seriously as descriptions of the world and auguries of things to come, even as Deen protests that he is "a rational, secular, scientifically minded person." There is good reason to beware of signs and portents, for even as the Sundarbans disappear beneath the rising sea and cobras strike unwary victims, places like Los Angeles are falling before a wall of fire, "a glowing snake hurtling towards me, through the flames," while legions of displaced people are in flight, walking across continents, fleeing aboard boats "crowded with refugees." Much of Deen's story is a fictional rejoinder to Ghosh's 2016 polemic, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, and, as with that book, blends elements of journalism, folklore, science, and history to describe a world on the verge of catastropheand one in which people, in the end, have nowhere to go.Ghosh's story, involving and intricate, speaks urgently to a time growing ever more perilous. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Deen Datta, a Bengali American rare-books and antiquities dealer, finds himself drawn into an unforeseen, bafflingly mystical, and radically transformative adventure. The catalyst is a Bengali folktale about Bonduki Sadagar, the Gun Merchant, who incurred the wrath of Manasa Devi, the goddess who rules over snakes and all other poisonous creatures, a legend tied, Deen is told, to a shrine in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans. Initially a caricature of a stiff, condescending scholar, Deen urged on by powerful women, including Cinta Schiavon, a famous Italian historian and Deen's mentor decades ago, and marine biologist Piya Roy embarks on a quest that has him menaced by terrifying creatures and strange, violent weather in the Sundarbans, Los Angeles, and Venice. His true heroic nature surfaces when he experiences the havoc wrought by climate change and pollution and becomes entangled in the plight of refugees. Following his magnificent Ibis trilogy with a loosely connected continuation of his ecologically oriented novel, The Hungry Tide (2005), Ghosh seductively combines old-fashioned storytelling with keen research and a socially conscious sensibility to enthralling and piquantly enlightening affect.--Donna Seaman Copyright 2010 Booklist
