True Fiction - conversation with Amitav Ghosh

The Indian writer talks to Bas Heijne about his oeuvre and his new novel Sea of Poppies. Ghosh, who does research for years before putting pen to paper. finds fiction more interesting than history. In English.

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2009 21:10 tot 22:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

Amitav Ghosh is one of the best known writers from India. With his latest novel Sea of Poppies, the Dutch translation was launched at Winternachten, he pocketed a nomination for the Booker Prize. The first part of a trilogy, it tells the story of Asia's colonial past and is set on the eve of the first Opium war. In a full Main Hall, Bas Heijne talked to Ghosh about his literary work.

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Amitav Ghosh

(India, 1956) is one of India’s most renowned writers. Ghosh debuted in 1986 with the novel The Circle of Reason, in which he explores the extent to which Western rational ideas can be integrated into traditional Indian thought. His work centers on the (post-)colonial issues of Asia. In 2023, the Dutch translation of The Nutmeg’s Curse (De vloek van de nootmuskaat, translated by Menno Grootveld) was published by Atlas Contact. He has received numerous awards worldwide, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The New York Times. End of 2024, the Dutch translation of Smoke and ashes (Rook en as, translated by Menno Grootveld) will be published by Atlas Contact. In 2024, Ghosh will receive the Erasmus Prize for his body of work.
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Bas Heijne

(Nijmegen, NL, 1960) writes essays, short stories and plays, and is a columnist with the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He published the novels Laatste woorden (Last words) and Suez and received the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize in 2005. In 2011's Moeten wij van elkaar houden, het populisme ontleed (Do We Have to Love One Another? Populism Dissected) Heijne shows how globalisation and individualism pave the way for populism. Angst en schoonheid (Fear and Beauty) was published in 2013, an essay about Dutch writer Louis Couperus, whom Heijne admires. In the same year his documentary about Couperus was broadcast. In 2015 he hosted the five-part documentary De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human). In 2016 his essay Onbehagen – nieuw licht op de beschaafde mens (Discontent - new light on civilized man) was published. In 2017 Heijne received the P.C. Hooft Award for his essayistic works.
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