The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery - Softcover

Ghosh, Amitav

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380813947 ISBN 13: 9780380813940

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2001

Synopsis

From Victorian lndia to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes readers on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life. When Antar discovers the battered I.D. card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.

About this title

Review:

The Calcutta Chromosome is one of those books that's marketed as a mainstream thriller even though it is an excellent science fiction novel (It won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award). The main character is a man named Antar, whose job is to monitor a somewhat finicky computer that sorts through mountains of information. When the computer finds something it can't catalog, it brings the item to Antar's attention. A string of these seemingly random anomalies puts Antar on the trail of a man named Murugan, who disappeared in Calcutta in 1995 while searching for the truth behind the discovery of the cure for malaria. This search for Murugan leads, in turn, to the discovery of the Calcutta Chromosome, which can shift bits of personality from one person to another. That's when things really get interesting.

From the Back Cover:

"It is impossible to overstate the brilliance of Ghosh's literary skill.... This is at once a breathless page-turner of a detective story and a subtle, profound, complex and enthralling novel of ideas.... Enormous fun and almost frighteningly serious." -- The Toronto Star

"Enthralling.... both playful and deadly serious. Ghosh's novel winds up as richly complex as a strand of DNA." -- The Sunday Times

"An extremely ingenious novel about malaria research, oriental religion and computer science ... The Calcutta Chromosome combines the suspense of a Victorian melodrama with the fascination of a scientific thriller." -- The Guardian

"Well-crafted, intelligent and wildly inventive. To the medical mayhem, add a dash of ancient goddess cults, -- blood-letting in an abandoned mansion, ghost trains and transmigrating souls, and you have an irresistible brew that must be drained to the last drop." -- The Montreal Gazette

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0380813947
• ISBN 13: 9780380813940
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320