Book Summary of The Imam and the Indian: Prose Pieces
The Imam and the Indian is an extensive compilation of Amitav Ghosh’s non-fiction writings. Sporadically published between his novels, in magazines, journals, academic books and periodicals, these essays and articles trace the evolution of the ideas that shape his fiction. He explores the connections between past and present, events and memories, people, cultures and countries that have a shared history. Ghosh combines his historical and anthropological bent of mind with his skills of a novelist, to present a collection like no other.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and northern India. Educated in India and Britain, he now lives in New York. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Egypt and has taught a number of Indian and American Universities. He is the author of three previous, highly acclaimed novels; The Calcutta Chromosome, the Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace. He is married and lives in New York.