The Circle of Reason

Winner of the Prix Medici Etranger Award

Following the form of the raga in Indian classical music, Amitav Ghosh slowly builds the tempo of The Circle of Reason. The first part spans several decades, the second unfolds over a few weeks, and the third, like a scherzo, races through a day.

Ghosh’s debut novel centres on Alu, an orphan enlisted by his foster father as a soldier in his crusade against the forces of myth and unreason. Suspected of terrorism, they are about to be arrested when a tragic accident forces Alu to flee his village. Pursued by a misguided police officer, Alu finds his way through Calcutta to Goa and on to a trawler that runs illegal immigrants to Africa.

Tracing Alu’s journey across two continents, The Circle of Reason is an exceptional novel by one of India’s most celebrated writers in English.

‘‘ ‘A novelist of dazzling ingenuity.’ —San Francisco Chronicle

‘‘A remarkable achievement. Technically a lot of us can learn from Mr Ghosh. Finally, it is the intelligence manifested in a brilliant handling of language that impresses us.’ —Anthony Burgess in The New York Times

‘‘If there is a distinctive genre known as Indian Writing in English, then Amitav Ghosh is perhaps its most scholarly practitioner. Ghosh is a traveller in the physical as well as the metaphysical, a writer of formidable learning and intelligence.’ —Indian Express