Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh review – a climate-crisis novel let down by its prose

A reincarnation mystery drives this exploration of spiritual interconnectedness in a globalised world What happens when a novelist cares more about their plot, or their message, than their prose? Plot and message have this much in common: they travel smoothest on the lubricating oil of cliche. Thus you might find yourself enjoying, at the level of story or argument, a novel that trundles along via lumps of workhorse novelese like the following: “manicured gardens”, “apple of their father’s ey...

By Kevin Power