The Hungry Tide (2005)

Piya, an earnest Indian-American marine biologist from Seattle, is traveling to the easternmost coast of her parents' homeland to study a rare dolphin. On the train ride from Kolkata she meets Kanai, a slick New Delhi translator who is also making the long journey to the tide country to retrieve a manuscript his uncle left for him 20 years earlier. What follows is an intimately told story of Piya's and Kanai's parallel journeys of self-discovery set against a feral, untamed environment in The Hungry Tide. Amitav Ghosh not only infuses great energy and spirit into an engrossing tale of caste and culture, he deftly introduces readers to a little-known world and makes it familiar.