Incendiary Circumstances stands as a compelling chronicle of the turmoil of our times — environmental, political, and cultural. In these seventeen absorbing pieces, Amitav Ghosh delivers extraordinary firsthand accounts of pivotal world events. He visits the Andaman and Nicobar Islands just days after the devastating 2005 tsunami, experiences the chaos in New York City on September 11, travels to an icy mountaintop on the contested border between India and Pakistan, interviews Pol Pot's sister-in-law in Cambodia, shares the elation of Egyptians when Naguib Mahfouz wins the Nobel Prize, and reports on the riots following Indira Gandhi's assassination. Taken together, Ghosh's essays offer a clear view of our turbulent world and serve as a powerful call to action.

Writer and anthropologist Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and spent his childhood in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and northern India. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Egypt, and has taught in various Indian and American universities. He is the author of three books: “The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines” and “In An Antique Land” and has written for “The New Yorker, Granta, The New Republic” and “The New York Times.” Mr. Ghosh and his wife, Deborah Baker, live in New York with their two children.