In an Antique Land

In an Antique Land tells the story of two Indian men in Egypt. The first was a 12th century slave; the second is anthropologist and novelist Amitav Ghosh, who stumbled upon the slave in the margins of letters that were written by the slave’s master. His curiosity piqued – even ill-defined, the slave’s presence in the records of medieval history was completely out of the ordinary – Ghosh journeyed to Egypt in 1980 to try to fill in the details of the slave’s life. His search – which would last for ten years – leads him to discover an ‘elusive and mysterious acquaintance’ in the slave, with whom he seemed to share, across 800 years, the experience of dislocation. The author, a Hindu, comes face to face with the Muslim world and culture of modern Egypt, in a narrative that juxtaposes ancient history and modern travelogue.

Author Biography

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and is one of India’s best-known writers. His books include The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, Incendiary Circumstances, The Hungry Tide. His most recent novel, Sea of Poppies, is the first volume of the Ibis Trilogy.