The Calcutta Chromosome

A Novel of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery

By: Amitav Ghosh

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

From Victorian India to near-future New York, The Calcutta Chromosome takes listeners on a wondrous journey through time as a computer programmer trapped in a mind-numbing job hits upon a curious item that will forever change his life.

When Antar discovers the battered I.D. card of a long-lost acquaintance, he is suddenly drawn into a spellbinding adventure across centuries and around the globe, into the strange life of L. Murugan, a man obsessed with the medical history of malaria, and into a magnificently complex world where conspiracy hangs in the air like mosquitoes on a summer night.

©2010 Amitav Ghosh (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The Calcutta Chromosome is one of those books that's marketed as a mainstream thriller even though it is an excellent science fiction novel (it won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award)." (Amazon.com review)

falls flat

The biggest challenge of this book is trying to make sense of the story. When is it current time, the past, or someone in the past relating something in the even more distant past, or someone in the past relating a story of someone in a more distant past who is having a possibly hallucinatory experience? Maybe the book is better experienced in print. But okay, it kept me engaged. Until the end neared, at which point it got silly. The ending was unsatisfying, rendering the entire book unsatisfying.

Vance was his at his usual, love him or not.

Mesmerizing story, excellent performance

What did you love best about The Calcutta Chromosome?

Simon Vance really brought the characters to life; the voices haunted me. I immediately listened to the novel a second time after finishing it the first time, which is something I do very rarely.

Any additional comments?

As a combination of science fiction and historical fiction, this is a book like no other that I have read. HIGHLY recommended!

Simply Amazing

This book was phenomenal and I loved every second of it.
The story is very deep and has many historical and cultural references to it.
While all being wrapped up into this complex fictional story.
This is a all time favorite and is an amazing read after a long day.
In my opinion this is one of the best books I have gotten into. Thanks for the ride and amazing narration, Ten out of ten!

What fun!

This is a mix of biology, medicine, history, Sci Fi and a whopping good time. The humor is great as is the suspense. At first I had no idea where the story was going and then once I understood the different time frames it all made sense.
I'm going to listen to more from this author.

Whaaa?

Maybe it's because I fell asleep many times while listening to this book on my morning bus commute but I have no idea what happened here other than a vague outline. Yes, I got the characters and the premise of the book was pretty interesting but it skips from past to present to waaay past back to present to lots of other times in between, without a lot of clues. You really have to follow the characters to know where you are. If you are prone to falling asleep on your morning commute while listening to audio books, I would say this one is not for you.

Science fiction or science history? Both!

This was offbeat but quite enjoyable. It has quite a lot of science history in it, told from a dystopic future world, and there is even a bit of ghost story to it. The most amusing part was the enthusiastic bumbling of the main protagonist in the story told in a voice that rings true (I had a co-worker like that once...) I'd recommend it, though there are a few caveats. It started a little slow. Because of the mix of the fiction and fact, it's hard to know which historical data can be trusted and which cannot. Also, the ending felt abrupt and unsatisfying. But until the last ten minutes, I steadily enjoyed it more and more.

An early work, all the threads do not tie together

I LOVE Amitav Ghosh and have listened to everything he has on Audible. Without a question, he has improved over time. This early novel contains many of the ingredients that make him great: fascinating historical research into obscure but important scientific topics, multiple characters, a sprawling view of India. The storytelling is quite good, but the novel seems truncated. It's a fraction of the length of a more typical Ghosh novel, and I'm not sure if he just had to publish it under a deadline... it just doesn't quite come together. Where is the rest of the novel? I was just getting into the story!

Complex story line

Challenging to follow at times and, while I'm not a sci fi reader/fan, i think it has some sci-fi like futuristic vs magical realism character to it. It comes together in the end and I enjoyed the story as well as the performance.

Amazing plot and masterful suspense

Great book, but terrible reading of Indian words and Indian accent by the reader... still a good listen.

Lots of time shifting and a mixture of Indian gods

Indian gods and tradition mixed with stories of a previous century and the current century with characters finding themselves in time warps associated with science and old Indian stories.