Abstract

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Much of Ghosh"s writing meditates on the arbitrary and vexing nature of national borders. This book is surely obsessed with more personal divisions between men and women. One of the major elements of this novel?s plot is the story of Kanai"s growing relationship with Piya. Another is Piya"s developing understanding of Fokir. A third is Kanai"s gradual transformation through his reading of his uncle?s account of the "Morichjhapi incident"from some thirty years ago. The Hungry Tide seems almost intimate. Nonetheless, it shares Ghosh?s concern for the individual against a broader historical or even, in this case, geographical-backdrop.