topics: |  fiction | india | bengal | sunderbans

The Hungry Tide is a very contemporary story of adventure and unlikely love,
identity and history, set in one of the most fascinating regions on the
earth. Off the easternmost coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal, lies the
immense labyrinth of tiny islands known as the Sundarbans. For settlers here,
life is extremely precarious. Attacks by deadly tigers are common. Unrest and
eviction are constant threats. Without warning, at any time, tidal floods
rise and surge over the land, leaving devastation in their wake. In this
place of vengeful beauty, the lives of three people from different worlds
collide. Piya Roy is a young marine biologist, of Indian descent but
stubbornly American, in search of a rare, endangered river dolphin. Her
journey begins with a disaster, when she is thrown from a boat into
crocodile-infested waters. Rescue comes in the form of a young, illiterate
fisherman, Fokir. Although they have no language between them, Piya and Fokir
are powerfully drawn to each other, sharing an uncanny instinct for the ways
of the sea. Piya engages Fokir to help with her research and finds a
translator in Kanai Dutt, a businessman from Delhi whose idealistic aunt and
uncle are longtime settlers in the Sundarbans. As the three of them launch
into the elaborate backwaters, they are drawn unawares into the hidden
undercurrents of this isolated world, where political turmoil exacts a
personal toll that is every bit as powerful as the ravaging tide. Already an
international success, The Hungry Tide is a prophetic novel of remarkable
insight, beauty, and humanity.