SOURCE: “Post-Colonial Pox,” in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4870, August 2, 1996, p. 23.

In the following review, Baker offers a positive assessment of The Calcutta Chromosome.

The existence of “research luck” has been often remarked; a serendipitous book almost leaps from the shelf, and fortuitous pieces of evidence obtrude themselves on the researcher in ways that seem almost supernatural. Scientific breakthroughs, too, have famously happened as happy accidents. These phenomena are given uniquely sinister treatment in The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh, an ingenious and bewitching novel which proposes a dark, secret history of malaria research.

It opens in a near-future New York, where a computer clerk named Antar is having his daily battle of wills with his computer, Ava. Ava has no qualms about reporting him to his employer, the International Water Council, if she senses she doesn't have his full attention, and they have already threatened to reduce his...