Claire Nicholls

The narrator of this book, Ghost Eye, is Dinu, or Dean.

He's a retired man living in Brooklyn in 2020 during the COVID lockdowns.

He's Shoma's nephew.

He's a bookish guy.

And as I was reading this, Amitav, I realised, oh, I know, I know, Dean.

He was in the last book you wrote, Garna Island.

And Dean, being this bookish guy in Brooklyn, looking back to his childhood in Calcutta, should we see Dean as some sort of stand-in or cipher for you, Amitav Ghosh?

How are your temperaments different?

You mentioned the Sunduban.

This was a very important location in the last novel, Gun Island, as well.

Can you remind listeners what this place is, the Sunduban, and what its meaning is particularly to you, Amitav?

Is there an urgency to writing about this place, given the effects that climate change is having on the Sunderbarn?

I think this is increasing more and more in fiction, though.

You famously wrote a nonfiction book, The Great Derangement, which looked at how do we talk about the climate crisis through fiction?

I think since that time, there has been an absolute explosion in writing fiction about climate change.

It struck me that Ian McEwan's recent climate change book, What We Can Know, he actually called this time, he actually called it the derangement.

I wondered if he was speaking back to your own work there, Amitav.

And we appreciate what you're doing, Amitav Ghosh.

The new book is called Ghost Eye.

It's published by John Murray.