Calcutta Chromosome [Paperback]

Amitav Ghosh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 1997

Antar, a computer-bound Egyptian clerk in New York City, investigates the strange truth of what happened in a tropical laboratory in the 1890s. Offers a cast of extraordinary characters, advanced computer science, religious cults, and portraits of 20th-century India and America.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Calcutta Chromosome is one of those books that's marketed as a mainstream thriller even though it is an excellent science fiction novel (It won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award). The main character is a man named Antar, whose job is to monitor a somewhat finicky computer that sorts through mountains of information. When the computer finds something it can't catalog, it brings the item to Antar's attention. A string of these seemingly random anomalies puts Antar on the trail of a man named Murugan, who disappeared in Calcutta in 1995 while searching for the truth behind the discovery of the cure for malaria. This search for Murugan leads, in turn, to the discovery of the Calcutta Chromosome, which can shift bits of personality from one person to another. That's when things really get interesting. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ghosh's latest novel, after the accaimed The Shadow Lines (LJ 5/1/89), is part medical thriller, part science fiction, and part literary conspiracy novel, but entirely readable.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Picador (August 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330353314
• ISBN-13: 978-0330353311
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,792,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and raised and educated in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, India, and the United Kingdom, where he received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Oxford. Acclaimed for fiction, travel writing, and journalism, his books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land, and Dancing in Cambodia. His previous novel, The Glass Palace, was an international bestseller that sold more than a half-million copies in Britain. Recently published there, The Hungry Tide has been sold for translation in twelve foreign countries and is also a bestseller abroad. Ghosh has won France's Prix Medici Etranger, India's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Pushcart Prize. He now divides his time between Harvard University, where he is a visiting professor, and his homes in India and Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting book, September 27, 2000

By 

Saurabh Chatterjee (Calcutta, India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Calcutta Chromosome (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the most fascinating books that I have read. Although the plot is sometimes abstruse, the story is almost always taut. There is a constant feel of suspense and mystery that surrounds the characters. The concept itself, that personalities can be transferred and, in effect, immortality gained through the malaria parasite is nothing short of spellbinding. When I finished the book, the first word that came to my mind was: wierd. But as I glossed over what I had just read and the emotions I had experienced while reading it, I realised that it was nothing short of a gem of modern science fiction. The story is vast in it's scope. Ghosh simultaneously handles three points in time, but keeps the reader equally engrossed in all three. The characters are real (one in fact is based on an Indian film maker) and totally believable. Having lived in Calcutta all my life, I can tell you that the situations depicted are absolutely authentic and real. Nothing is wasted in the book. Every syllable, every event, however insignificant it may seem, will come back later. The ending is incredible, dealing you a sledgehammer blow in the last couple of lines. All in all, a must read for SF fans, and indeed for fans of good, albeit populist, literature.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too opaque for my tastes, March 25, 2004

By 

abt1950 "abt1950" (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery (Paperback)

This appears to be a book you either love or hate. It has all the ingredients of a fine novel and a fun read--intriguing plot, exotic (to the Western eye) locales, some history, some mysticism, a little bit of science blended with some speculation--and a juicy conspiracy to tie it all together. Ghosh is a good writer, there's no doubt about that.

Nonetheless, I found this book difficult to like. It had its moments--the ghost train scene among them--but overall the plot was too opaque for me to follow consistently. The twists and turns were fun at the beginning, but by the second half of the book I was totally lost. This book has gotten great reviews, but I just didn't enjoy it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is Amitav Ghosh too brilliant for me?, April 21, 2005

By 

A. Smith "geniusreviewer1" (Almaty, Kazakhstan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book, I really did. In the end I was left confused and frustrated. This had the makings of a classic, but ultimately it didn't coalesce in my feeble brain.

The book has its ups and downs, and ultimately sucks you in the last 100 pages, and cruelly leaves you staring face to face with a brick wall. A main character keeps on saying "Don't you see?" and "Can't you see it?" to another character. I felt like the author was patronizing me, because I could not make the connections. I went back and reread a bit, and it turns out that seemingly trivial information stated at the beginning of the book is key to understanding the end. I agree with other reviewers about the scene at the railway station...breathtaking. Rarely have I had such a vivid picture painted in my head while reading...but frustratingly, this act does not seem to tie in to the rest of the story at all...or does it? Maybe I'm just not smart enough to make the connections. I'm not the type to go back and read entire novels again just to understand what the heck the point of the book was. If you aren't either (and if you are any less than a genius), than you may want to skip this one.