Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies

The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis

In this public talk, acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh will present his recent book The Nutmeg’s Curse and engage in discussion with debater, lecturer, and author Carsten Jensen. Ghosh’s other works, which are in the genres of climate change, climate fiction, and histories of capitalism include The Sea of Poppies, The Glass Palace, and The Great Derangement.

The Nutmeg’s Curse: “In 1621, Dutch East India Company soldiers went on a genocidal rampage in the Banda Islands, a tiny archipelago that at the time produced the world’s entire supply of once-lucrative nutmeg. In the fate of those islanders massacred for a tree, and in the exploitation that ensued, Ghosh spies the seeds of today’s climate crisis, reframing colonialism as ‘the project of muting and subduing the Earth’. It’s a powerful, personal polemic in which storytelling plays an essential role. Ghosh also has a solution to propose, one that requires us to summon radical empathy and draw deep on indigenous beliefs from around the world.” The Nutmeg’s Curse | Fiction | The Guardian