Born on July 11, 1956, in Kolkata, India, Amitav Ghosh is an award-winning Indian author, essayist, and scholar. Ghosh is best known for his complex, ambitious novels, which often focus on the people of India and South Asia. In his novels, historical fiction, and nonfiction, Ghosh explores issues of national and personal identity, colonialism, and climate change. His career as a writer began while he was a student at the Doon School, a prestigious all-boys school in Dehradun, India, where Ghosh frequently contributed fiction and poetry to the student newspaper. Ghosh later received a bachelor’s degree in history from Delhi University and a master’s degree in social anthropology from the Delhi School of Economics. In 1982, he completed a PhD in social anthropology at Oxford University. These diverse academic interests are reflected in the variety of topics and fields referenced in his writing and research, including The Great Derangement.

Ghosh’s debut novel, The Circle of Reason (1986), features an Indian protagonist who journeys to the Middle East and North Africa after being falsely accused of terrorism. The novel was celebrated for its innovative structure and its use of magical realism to highlight the absurdities of imperialism and colonialism.