The Calcutta Chromosome: A Novel Of Fevers, Delirium & Discovery

Author: Amitav Ghosh

In 1898, the British scientist Ronald Ross, working in Calcutta, made a major discovery about the transmission of malaria for which he would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize. But the Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh suggests that the discovery was not Rosss alone.Within the complex timelines of this novel, in which different periods sometimes seem to merge and overlap, a researcher in near-future New York begins to investigate the disappearance of a former colleague who had disappeared in Calcutta many years before. In turn, the colleague, Murugan, had been researching the true story of Rosss discovery. Slowly, as the story moves back and forth in time, we discover that Rosss research was secretly guided by his Indian assistants who were part of a secret organisation trying to discover immortality.Part historical novel, part detective story, part post-colonial revision of existing ideas about the past, part dramatization of real controversies surrounding Rosss Nobel Prize, this is a complex, multi-part story (including, at one point, a powerfully effective ghost story) that won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.