The Shadow Lines

'This is how the language should be used . . . This is how a novel should be written' - Khushwant Singh

'Brilliant. . . . A work of lyrical beauty' - Gopal Gandhi

'Ghosh stands out for his sensitive and resonant use of language . . . A delight to read' - Girish Karnad, Indian Express

'Ambitious, funny, poignant' - A.K. Ramanujan

'A moving book, written with humour, tenderness and an understated intensity' - India Today

As a young boy, Amitav Ghosh's narrator travels across time through the tales of those around him, traversing the unreliable planes of memory, unmindful of physical, political and chronological borders. But as he grows older, he is haunted by a seemingly random act of violence. Bits and pieces of stories, both half-remembered and imagined, come together in his mind until he arrives at an intricate, interconnected picture of the world where borders and boundaries mean nothing, mere shadow lines that we draw dividing people and nations.

Out of a complex web of memories, relationships and images, Amitav Ghosh builds an intensely vivid, funny and moving story. Exposing the idea of the nation state as an illusion, an arbitrary dissection of people, Ghosh depicts the absurd manner in which your home can suddenly become your enemy.

© 2026 Fourth Estate India (Audiobook): 9789369891658

Release date

Audiobook: 12 June 2026