SOURCE: “The Story Bug,” in New Statesman, Vol. 125, No. 4299, September 6, 1996, p. 47.

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

With its dazzling and haunting mix of science fiction, the history of malaria research, thriller, ghost story and postcolonial allegory, Amitav Ghosh's new novel is—like his previous work—wonderfully clever as well as a good read. Set in the not-too-distant future but covering in its sweep the 1880s and 1890s (crucial years in the medical history of malaria), The Calcutta Chromosome finds its driving force in the idea of research. Specialised knowledge carries the narrative, and is fired by the character's obsessive energies into mesmerising talk. This has all the excitement and frustrations of the chase, with the tangled operations of accident and design, the ground-breaking discoveries as well as the near-misses.

Antar is a bored computer clerk employed by the International Water...