New Travel Book: ‘Ganga’

Travel Blog  •  Frank Bures  •  12.07.07 | 11:04 AM ET

imageFull title: “Ganga: A Journey Down the Ganges River”

Author: Julian Crandall Hollick, who also guided a six-part NPR series on the river.

Released: Oct. 15, 2007

Travel genre: River travel

Territory covered: India

Promo copy: “The Ganges has always been more than just an ordinary river. For millions of Indians, she is also a goddess…Yet there remains a paradox: while Ganga is worshipped devotedly, she is also exploited without remorse. Much of her water has been siphoned off for irrigation, toxic chemicals are dumped into her, and dams and barrages have been built on her course, causing immense damage. Ganga is in danger of dying—but if the river dies, will the goddess die too?

The question took journalist Julian Crandall Hollick on an extraordinary journey through northern India…Along the way he encounters priests and pilgrims, dacoits and dolphins, the fishermen who subsist on the river, and the villagers whose lives have been destroyed by her. He finds that popular devotion to Ganga is stronger and blinder than ever, and it is putting her—and her people—in great risk. Combining travelogue, science, and history, Ganga is a fascinating portrait of a river and a culture. It will show you India as you have never imagined it.”

Critical verdict, Zagat-style: “Hollick regales the reader with…stories based in Hindu mythology and the folk culture of villages. The ride on and along the river recalls Alex Frater’s Chasing the Monsoon. Both books share a palpable, liquid passion for the chase and a storyteller’s love for the elusive, watery object of the chase” (India Currents), though the “author is unable to appreciate the fact that metaphysical realities are experienced in our physical body…But one thing that the book does is make the reader take more interest in Ganga and the culture associated with the great river.” (Hindustan Times)

Find it: Amazon, Powells,  Publisher

Tags: Asia, India


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