"The shadow lines" is a novel of three generations. The three geneses from the narrator`s family spread over Calcutta, Dhaka and London weave the ground of the novel. The title "the shadow lines" philosophically unfolds the inner struggle of mankind in choosing the light and darkness, which is again symbolically presented in the novel.
Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956. He is a Bengali author as well as a literary critic in the field of English language. Ghosh was born in Kolkata and was educated at The Doon School, St. Stephen`s College, Delhi Delhi University; and the University of Oxford as well. In Oxford University he was awarded a Ph.D. in the subject of social anthropology. Presently Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker. She is the author of the Laura Riding biography In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding that was published in1993. she is also the senior editor at Little, Brown and Company. They have two children, Lila and Nayan. In 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at Queens College, City University of New York as Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature. He has also been a visiting professor to the English department of Harvard University since 2005. Ghosh has recently decided to return back to India. At present he is working on a trilogy to be published by Penguin Books India. Apart from fiction, Amitav Ghosh is also comfortable in writing non-fiction. He always taken contemporary subjects for his novels like India`s nuclear policy, Egyptian culture and literature, etc. Amitav Ghosh has also been awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Synopsis:
`The Shadow Lines` by Amitav Ghosh is a great novel. This book captures the perspectival view of time and events. It draws a line that bring people together and hold them apart. This line are visible on one perspective and nonexistent on another. Lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another`s imagination. These lines constantly forms the criss-crossing web of memories of many people, it never pretends to tell a story. Rather it invites the reader to invent one, out of the memories of those involved, memories that hold mirrors of differing shades to the same experience. And in this way the readers feel accustomed with the story to think of them own to fulfill the story. This is a good and worth reading novel in which the author has covered a wide range of themes. The book also dealt with multiple subjects at once. The novel is superb in the psychoanalytic element and shows a careful and neat workmanship in this regard. It examines the subtle folds of the human nature as well as its outspoken and outward behavior. The novel has gotten ripe beyond thinking of otherness.
`The Shadow Lines` by Amitabh Ghosh is published by the publication house named South Asia Books in two editions in the year of 2001.
`The shadow lines` by Amitabh Ghosh reflects the thought of common people. This book carries some philosophical meaning. There are many things present in the world, the meaning of which is still unknown to all. There are also unspeakable moments whose expression lies beyond the restrictedness of our languages. All these unspoken and unheard things are illustrated in a beautiful manner, which has drawn accolades from different corners of world.
