Jungle Nama

'One of the finest writers of his generation' Financial Times

Thousands of islands rise from the rivers' rich silts,

crowned with forests of mangrove, rising on stilts.

This is the Sundarban, where great rivers give birth;

to a vast jungle that joins Ocean and Earth.

Jungle Nama is a beautifully illustrated verse adaptation of a legend from the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. It tells the story of the avaricious rich merchant Dhona, the poor lad Dukhey, and his mother; it is also the story of Dokkhin Rai, a mighty spirit who appears to humans as a tiger, of Bon Bibi, the benign goddess of the forest, and her warrior brother Shah Jongoli.

Jungle Nama is the story of an ancient legend with urgent relevance to today's climate crisis. Its themes of limiting greed, and of preserving the balance between the needs of humans and nature have never been more timely.

Written in Amitav Ghosh's interpretation of the traditional Bengali verse meter, poyar, the poem is coupled with stunning illustrations from internationally renowned artist, Salman Toor.

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford, has taught at a number of institutions and written for many magazines. The first novel in the Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. In 2015, Amitav Ghosh was named as a finalist of the Man Booker International Prize.

Salman Toor was born in Lahore in 1983, and studied art at Ohio Wesleyan university. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, and is now in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Tate, London. He was named in Time100 Next 2021. He lives and works in New York City.

'One of the finest writers of his generation' Financial Times Jungle-nama is a wonderful illustrated verse adaptation of a fable from the Sundarbans, the legend of Bon Bibi, which lies at the heart of his novel Gun Island .The Ganga, in her descent, or so the legends go; would've broken the Earth with the force of her flow. It was Lord Shiva who safeguarded the world; by catching the cascade even as it unfurled. With his ashen dreadlocks he restrained the current, braiding its strands into a life-giving torrent. Smooth flows the stream till it meets the Brahmaputra, another braided child of the Himalaya. This collision of waters sets the tresses free; they become a liquid net, joining shore and sea. Thousands of islands rise from the rivers' rich silts, crowned with forests of mangrove, rising on stilts. This is the Sundarban, where great rivers give birth; to a vast jungle that joins Ocean and Earth.

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