The Calcutta Chromosome
ISBN: 8175300051
Type: A Novel
Publisher: Ravi Dayal Publishers
This novel has been described as “a kind of mystery thriller” (India Today). It brings together three searches: the first is that of an Egyptian clerk, Antar, working alone in a New York apartment in the early years of the twenty-first century to trace the adventures of L. Murugan, who disappeared in Calcutta in 1995; the second pertains to Murugan’s obsession with the missing links in the history of malaria research; the third search is that of Urmila Roy, a journalist in Calcutta in 1995 who is researching the works of Phulboni, a writer who produced a strange cycle of “Lakhan stories” that he wrote in the 1930s but suppressed thereafter.
Reviews
The Calcutta Chromosome
Robert Asprin
It is really hard to define what kind of book this is, something like a Victorian science fiction/fiction label might come somewhat close. The story jumps back and forth in time and follows different characters, weaving everything together beautifully. In a future an egyptuian clerk (named Antar) in New York City bumps into a lost ID card. It belongs to a strange man that Antar met a long time ago. The man claimed to be the world authority on Ronald Ross, the man that solved the mystery with malaria in Calcutta 1898. While Antar digs up information about what really happend to the man, a mystery unravels and by the time Antar finds himself involved into it, it’s to late to get out.
I’m glad that I read this book, it was really a joy to read. Amitav Ghosh tells the story in a way that you have a hard time putting the book down, you get completly caught up in the book.