Earlier this years I was finally introduced to the work of Amitav Ghosh through reading his great book "the Hungry Tide" about live in the chars of the Bay of Bengal.
During my summer holidays I read the wonderful book "The Glass Palace" by Amitav Ghosh. The book is an absolute page turner about the lives of three generations during the colonial times in Burma, India and Malaya. Best historic novel I've read since David Mitchells "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet".
Before my holidays I read Flanagan's Man Booker prize winning "Narrow Road to the Deep North" about the experiences of Australian soldiers on construction sites of the infamous death railway. Both books opened my eyes to histories that I know very little of. Looking back on these two historical novels i was struck by the stylistic differences between the two, especially the ways and tone in which they describe the violent histories, but i could quite grasp what this difference was. Reading Ghosh's blog this morning I found this piece on Ghosh' blog that provides part of the answer.
Next up: the Ibis Trilogy!
During my summer holidays I read the wonderful book "The Glass Palace" by Amitav Ghosh. The book is an absolute page turner about the lives of three generations during the colonial times in Burma, India and Malaya. Best historic novel I've read since David Mitchells "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet".
Before my holidays I read Flanagan's Man Booker prize winning "Narrow Road to the Deep North" about the experiences of Australian soldiers on construction sites of the infamous death railway. Both books opened my eyes to histories that I know very little of. Looking back on these two historical novels i was struck by the stylistic differences between the two, especially the ways and tone in which they describe the violent histories, but i could quite grasp what this difference was. Reading Ghosh's blog this morning I found this piece on Ghosh' blog that provides part of the answer.
Next up: the Ibis Trilogy!
