Gun Island: A Novel: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award
Bundook. Gun. One word, really, yet it fractures everything Deen Datta believed about his own existence. A collector of antiquarian volumes, Deen has long preferred the solitude of his profession to the chaos of the wider world. Yet when his comfortable certainties crumble, he finds himself pulled into an odyssey that zigzags across continents—from India to Los Angeles, then Venice—guided by the stories and revelations of strangers. Piya, a Bengali-American woman, catalyses his departure. Tipu, an ambitious young entrepreneur, forces him to confront harsh truths about contemporary life. Rafi's selfless desperation surfaces moral questions he'd avoided. And Cinta, resurfacing from his past, finally illuminates the connections binding them all together. What unfolds is a profound recalibration. The childhood myths of Bengal that once anchored him prove far more complex than memory allowed. His understanding of himself, fractured and remade. The world itself appears precarious, caught between rupture and transformation. Yet amid this unsettling terrain, Ghosh discovers something unexpectedly nourishing: two fierce, intelligent women restore something precious—not answers exactly, but a genuine belief that meaning and connection remain possible. A moving exploration of displacement, resilience, and the strange redemptions life offers those bold enough to seek them.
- Author: Amitav Ghosh
- Publisher: Penguin Hamish Hamilton
- Genre: Travel Writing & Guides
- ISBN: 978-0670089161
- Pages: 288 pages