20 best genre fiction writers from other countries to expand your horizons

19. Amitav Ghosh

Indian author Amitav Ghosh is well known for his historical fiction, which has helped garner him both acclaim and some serious literary prizes. Ghosh won the Prix Médicis étranger, one of France’s biggest literary awards, for The Circle of Reason, his debut novel published in 1986. That volume drew comparisons to both Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie for its use of magical realism, but it’s not entirely fair to compare one author to another.

Certainly, works like The Circle of Reason deserve to stand on their own merits and unique context. It follows the adventure of Alu, a young Bengali weaver with a misshapen head and a love of languages. When Alu is accused of terrorism, he flees across the globe, pursued by a bird-watching police officer.

Ghosh did not write a single fantastical novel, however. So far, he’s published eight novels, along with six works of nonfiction, showing his wide range of literary abilities and interests. Some of his most genre-heavy writing can be found in The Calcutta Chromosome (1995). This particular novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which recognizes outstanding science fiction novels, in 1997.

The Calcutta Chromosome is largely concerned with issues of medical science, malaria, computer programming, history, and more than a hint of noir fiction. The action begins with Antar, a low-level computer programmer living in a ramshackle near-future New York City. When he crosses digital paths with a strange ID card, Antar begins to recall his encounters with the odd L. Murugan, a former employer. Murugan has seemingly disappeared, but is that all that’s happened? And what does this all have to do with mystical concepts like eternal life?