IN THE NATURE OF THINGS

Amitav Ghosh's new book has spun a tiny tale that encompasses the universe

- MANDIRA NAYAR

The Living Mountain arrived aptly in an April of record-breaking heat— scorching, exhausting, unrelenting, and a sneak-peek at the world ahead.

A fable for our times, Amitav Ghosh’s new book has spun a tiny tale that encompasses the universe. At the heart of it, the book tries to make sense of the inferno that rages outside. And it does it in a way that only a storyteller like him can—effortlessly, effectively, evocatively, and as always, completely unforgettably.

Simple—breathtakingly so— the story is told through a dream of Maansi, who set out to make a reading list on Anthropocene for a book club. At the heart of the story is a history lesson and it neatly wraps the beginning of man’s conquest of nature. From the spice trade to colonialism, neocolonialism and the inherent inequality in the power structures of solutions for climate change. There are very few writers who can take the complexity—and the complication—of climate change and make it a fable, and make it compelling.