THE SHADOW LINES

Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956) is a citizen of the world in the true sense of the term. Through his works he has sought to bring the peoples of the world closer by questioning the meaning of political freedom in the modern world and the force of nationalism. Hailed as a potential Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Ghosh is the recipient of several national and international awards. The Shadow Lines is considered to be his best work so far. It spans three generations and the multi layered narrative vividly brings alive the trauma of the partition of Bengal when India attained freedom in 1947.\nThe present critical study examines Ghosh's magnum opus from all angles ? the story telling technique, its characterisations as well as the private upheavals mirrored by public turmoil ? the Blitz in war-time in London, civil strife in post-Partition Bengal and communal riots in Calcutta.\nShakti Batra, formerly Vice-Principal of Dyal Singh College (University of Delhi), he has taught at the Kabul University and the International University of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. Now associated with Surjeet Publications, Batra has to his credit critical studies of Anita Desai's : Voices In the City, Aphra Behn?s : The Rover, Arthur Miller's : Death of Salesman, Bernard Shaw's : Candida, Bertolt Brecht's : The Good Woman of Szechuan, D.H. Lawrence's : The Rainbow, Dario Fo's : Accidental Death of An Anarchist, Eugen Ionesco's :Rhinoceros, F. Scott Fitzgerald's : The Great Gatsby, Feodor, Dostoevsky's : Crime And Punishment, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's : The Chronicle of a Death Foretold, J.D. Salinger's : The Catcher in the Rye, Jean Genet's : The Balcony, Joseph Conrad's : Heart of Darkness, John August Strindberg's : Miss Julie, Henrik Ibsen's : Ghosts, Leo Tolstoy's : Anna Karenina, Margaret Atwood's : Surfacing, Nathaniel Hawthorne's : The Scarlet Letter, Neruda.