Indian author and anthropologist Amitav Ghosh has addressed the human cost of the major ecological challenges of our time in his works as almost no other contemporary public intellectual.

His 2016 book The Great Derangement aptly diagnosed the contemporary crisis of imagination in the face of climate change as a heritage not only of capitalism but also colonialism. His fictional work, from the awarded Ibis Trilogy (2008-2015) through Gun Island’s precursor The Hungry Tide (2004) to Gun Island itself (2019), has engaged ecological and (post)colonial concerns through a variety of genres.

Gosh received his BA and MA from the University of Delhi while also working as a newspaper reporter and editor. He then attended Oxford University, where he received his PhD in social anthropology in 1982. From 2004, the author turned to writing full-time while dividing his time between the United States and India.