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Cover of Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh

Gun Island

  • 320 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 2019
  • 9 editions

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1 About this book

Bundook. Gun. A common word, but one which turns Deen Datta's world upside down.

A dealer of rare books, Deen is used to a quiet life spent indoors, but as his once-solid beliefs begin to shift, he is forced to set out on an extraordinary journey; one that takes him from India to Los Angeles and Venice via a tangled route through the memories and experiences of those he meets along the way. There is Piya, a fellow Bengali-American who sets his journey in motion; Tipu, an entrepreneurial young man who opens Deen's eyes to the realities of growing up in today's world; Rafi, with his desperate attempt to help someone in need; and Cinta, an old friend who provides the missing link in the story they are all a part of. It is a journey that will upend everything he thought he knew about himself, about the Bengali legends of his childhood and the world around him.

Gun Island is a beautifully realized novel that effortlessly spans space and time.

  • Emigration and immigration
  • Climatic changes
  • Hindu mythology
  • Quests (Expeditions)
  • Personal growth
  • Psychological fiction
  • Booksellers and bookselling
  • East Indian Americans

2 About Amitav Ghosh

Born 1956

Amitav Ghosh (Bengali pronunciation:; born 11 July 1956) is an Indian-American writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honour. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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