Claire Nicholls

I'm Claire Nicholls, and for more of my author chats, make sure you're following the book show on ABC Listen.

This is The Book Show, where today you'll hear about past lives, fated futures and fish.

I'm Claire Nicholls, so pleased to tell you that Veronica Roth will be here later.

She's the author famous for her dystopian YA series Divergent, and she's just finished work on a new adult sci-fi fantasy, which I loved.

She's going to tell you all about it and what it's like to grapple with a series as famous.

as divergent.

But first, it's past lives, reincarnation and fish with Amitav Ghosh.

I'm taking you to India, specifically Calcutta, as it was then known in the 1960s.

In the house of a rich family, a three-year-old girl wakes up demanding to eat fish, shocking her strictly vegetarian parents.

Now, is this just the whims of a fussy toddler?

Or could this be proof of a prior life lived as a fisherwoman in a rural community?

Amitav Ghosh is best known for his Ibis trilogy, and he brings us this story in his new book, Ghost Eye.

Hi, Amitav.

I want to get straight into reincarnation, if we can, Amitav.

Is this something you believe in?

Wow, I have not come across this research.

So I'm guessing you've had a look at a lot of these studies.

And this book, Ghost Eye, it's suggesting there is more to life than science would have us believe, Amitav Ghosh.

Do you see evidence of this in your day-to-day life?

This happens even in writing for you, right?