Ghost Eye by Amitav Ghosh is a deftly woven story with much to admire, but ultimately it could not hold my attention until the end.

Perhaps the blend of magical realism and climate fiction simply is not to my taste.
Ghosh paints a vivid backdrop for his story, moving between 1960s Calcutta (now Kolkata) and the United States of the 2020s, with the narrative centred on an intriguing mystery.

Three-year-old Varsha Gupta, the daughter of strictly vegetarian Hindu parents, suddenly develops an insistent craving for fish – much to her mother’s horror. Yet she remains adamant, even going on a hunger strike until her wishes are met.

More peculiar, however, is the knowledge she appears to possess about the different species of fish she claims to have eaten, as well as the people she says she knew in a former life.

Panicked, her family turns to Dr Shoma Bose, a psychiatrist who, oddly enough, has encountered similar cases before.

The characters are richly drawn and the subject matter is as unwieldy and slippery as a fish caught by hand. Yet somewhere along the way the story loses momentum, and I found myself skim-reading the final quarter simply to reach the conclusion.

That said, I loved the twist at the end. It ties the novel’s many mysteries together in a way that is both surprising and satisfying.