Gun Island: A spellbinding, globe-trotting novel by the bestselling author of the Ibis trilogy

I didn't entirely enjoy this book. I wished it had had one clear focus instead of the many issues of people trafficking, climate change and the affect on the environment and the ancient story of the gun merchant with his ties to Venice . I found the drawing together of these themes at the end rather unconvincing and felt dissatisfied when I had finished .
I did like Gosh's style of writing and found it an easy read. The book is well researched and very informative. While I was reading it I found myself looking into the topics in greater depth. I feel I have gained a good deal of environmental and geographical knowledge by reading this book. (less)

Thank you to the reading Agency and Hodder for providing copies of Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh for Macclesfield Library reading groups to read and review. Both of our groups read this book and it created much discussion, here are the opinions of some of our members;
“A very enjoyable read with interwoven themes that gracefully meshed real issues with cultural tropes. Un-putdownable.”
“I loved the breadth and sweep of the story-relating at once to the past, present and future, science, history and storytelling.”
“I really enjoyed the book particularly the stories within stories and the tradition of oral storytelling, a great story and easy to read.”
“I enjoyed this book. It is a great comment on the contemporary problems of climate change and migration. I loved the way it mingled fairy tales and reality.”
“A deeply important book; the mixture of science, myth, politics and ethics is compelling and significant but it could really do with editing.”
“A story of myth and folklore woven into the modern day crisis enveloping environmental issues/migration/ refugees. However I did find it too long winded and the characters not appealing in anyway.”
“A book that makes you think about things that we don’t necessarily understand and shows us the importance of storytelling.”
“Sorry to say that Ii did not enjoy this book- I did not engage with any of the main characters and there were too many coincidences to be credible.”
“Sorry I could not get into this it appears to be going nowhere slowly”
“Based on a Bengali legend and the way it ties in with migration and climate breakdown. Involves a rare book dealer, an Italian professor, a Marine Biologist and how they go from India, L.A, Venice. Parts of interest where the legend comes to be understood and the explanation of climate change. The symbolism at the end is rather overblown.”
“This took a while to get into but I ended up enjoying it. A clever interweaving of many threads and parallels between an ancient myth and what appears to be a modern re-working of it. I liked the light shone on the climate and refugee crisis.”
“A bit like marmite some parts were enjoyable other bits confusing and some just totally unbelievable.”

Not due for publication until June we were lucky enough to get a reading group set of proofs of this novel to be given out to the group in a couple of weeks time but I enjoyed Amitav Ghosh's previous books so much that I just couldn't wait and had to read it.
It's a very contemporary story about migrants, climate change and uses for technology all seamlessly tied up with ancient Bengali folklore. Slow to get going and a consistently slow burn it is nevertheless a truly engrossing, interesting and informative read that builds up to a gripping denouement. At times dry but never boring Ghosh shares a wealth of knowledge about Bangladesh and Venice, ancient and modern and all manner of things in between while simultaneously telling more than one moving story. It is a story of and for our time.