The Hungry Tide

"I selected this book because it is set in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, which is the mangrove coastal area that is prone to cyclones. It contains a vivid description of a cyclone. Just last week I was visiting the cyclone-hit area of the Sundarbans and to have an image of what it is like makes it so much more real. Even though I have spoken to people who have lived through a cyclone, I sometimes find that fiction can make me understand things more fully. The area is still suffering the effects of cyclone Aila, which happened nine months ago and killed over 300 people. The damage it caused to the embankments that hold back the sea and protects the villages has not been repaired. So every time there is a high tide, the water rushes in again and destroys the houses a bit more. It’s an exceptional case and a desperate situation. We have funding to rebuild the houses but we cannot do so because the villages are still underwater. We are waiting for the government to rebuild the embankments. So we are trying to find out why there are delays and to push the slow bureaucratic systems to fix the embankments so that the aid can be delivered. A woman goes to the mangroves to conduct research about the river dolphins and she works with a Bangladeshi man who knows their habits. It’s the story of her relationship with him and the story of his relationship with the environment because he knows and loves the mangroves and rivers. There are also wonderful descriptions of a royal Bengal tiger emerging out of the water and of a tiger attacking a village and the villagers killing it. Eventually, the story culminates with the cyclone."