Symbols, struggles of the displaced, threat to nature blended seamlessly

THIS is a tale about the tiniest insect and the deepest friendship.

Margery Benson’s life ended the day her father walked out of his study and never returned.

Forty years later, she leaves her lacklustre job and advertises for an assistant. The successful candidate will accompany her on an expedition to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.

Enid Pretty is not exactly who she had in mind. Yet the two will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all of Margery’s expectations – and ultimately find a new life at the top of a red mountain. This intoxicating adventure story is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found. It is also a tender exploration of a friendship between two extraordinary women.

AT FIRST glance the cover of the Gun

Island edition I received was so dark and uninspiring that I was not compelled to delve inside. Readers so often select a book by its cover, and when you couple that with barely readable fine print on the back cover – well, put it back on the shelf. As I had also not read Amitav Ghosh before there was little chance I was going to read it.

But I’m so glad I did. Once you move beyond the murky covers – oh, what a story is being told. The beautiful prose hooks you from page one. And don’t be misled – this is not a gun-toting thriller.

From Calcutta to Venice and Los Angeles the reality of the world today blends with the fabled past and the probable future. Intricate stories of each place form the landscape of an epic and sometimes sinister journey but the seemingly tangled strands come together with a sense of hope and community.

“The strangest thing about this strange journey was that it was launched by a word – and not an unusually resonant one either but a banal, commonplace coinage that is in wide circulation, from Cairo to Calcutta. That word is bundook, which means ‘gun’ in many languages, including my mother tongue, Bengali.”

So begins Deen’s journey.

A dealer in rare books and lover of words and stories in all their forms, he is resident in Calcutta escaping the harsh winter months of Brooklyn, New York. Bengali folklore is one of his passions.

At a family gathering he is reminded of the story of Bonduki (Chand) Sadagar, “The Gun Merchant” and the fable of the goddess Manasa Devi who wanted him as a devotee. This then becomes the trigger for a strange search.

A visit to his ageing aunt Nilima secures his interest and through her scientist friend Piya he decides to visit the shrine to this goddess. It lies in the swamplands of the Sundarbans – the largest mangrove swamps in the world, and teeming with snakes. Getting to the shrine is perilous and as his guides Tipu and Rafi lead him to a display of strange symbols, the snakes make their dangerous appearance.

From the swamps Deen flies to Los Angeles where wildfires are raging and his long-time friend Cinta is waiting. She provides the missing link, identifying the strangest symbol.

An island within an island leads him to Cinta’s native Venice. Rafi appears again – now a migrant in the city as are so many other Bengalis. The migration story becomes an integral part as it touches not just on the plight of humans but also our wildlife.

Loss and hope weave intrinsically through the narrative and everything is connected. The characters are compelling – Tipu and Rafi, with their equally dangerous journeys and separation; Piya, whose passion for dolphins and their departure from habitat and habit takes another path; Cinta, whose spirituality adds to the mysticism that embraces the novel.

There are strange coincidences that at times feel implausible but blend effortlessly. Symbols come to life. Snakes and poisonous spiders threaten in strange places. But there is never a sense of fantasy – everything is very real. Ghosh is an atmospheric writer and the sense of place is immediately realised. He captures the smells, the cobbles or mud beneath your feet, the swirling mists of a sinking, flooded Venice and the migrants’ fear as climate change, conservation and transition come together. While there is much to keep up with, Ghosh brings together each of the themes so skilfully that the reader is left with a clear picture of what humans are doing to this world, but also that there is hope.

Meticulous and enthralling, this is a novel to savour not only for the prose but for the sensory moments it conjures up.