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What is The Living Mountain about?
The story is set in a high Himalayan valley whose communities revere Mahaparbat. The valley’s rules keep people from venturing onto the mountain’s slopes. In an excerpt published by HarperCollins, the narrator, Manasi, describes this boundary: “For one of the binding laws of the Valley, respected by all our warring villages, was that we were never, on any account, to set foot on the slopes of the Great Mountain.”
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
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Living Mountain | $12.22 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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In The Hall of The Mountain King | $5.95 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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When I Was Young in the Mountains | $12.00 | Buy on Amazon |
The conflict begins when outsiders known as the Anthropoi pursue commercial gain from the mountain. HarperCollins says disaster follows their efforts. The publisher describes the fable as engaging with climate catastrophe and humanity’s relationship with nature, and frames its warning around the consequences of exploiting natural resources without understanding them.
Why did Ghosh write it as a fable?
Ghosh said the work began as a contribution to an anthology on climate change and the Anthropocene. He recalled: “All I could come up with was a short story, and to my surprise the experts were very pleased with it, perhaps because it is about an aspect of our ongoing planetary crisis that is rarely addressed.” The statement appears in HarperCollins Publishers India’s announcement of 26 May 2022.
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The fable form lets the book approach a large environmental subject through an imagined place and a conflict over access to its mountain. That premise invites reflection on human conduct; it does not, by itself, establish a specific scientific argument or one definitive allegorical reading.
What to know before reading
- It is a short literary fable. The title is The Living Mountain: A Fable for Our Times, by Amitav Ghosh.
- Its setting is imagined. Mahaparbat and the valley communities belong to the story; the publisher’s description does not present the plot as a documentary account of a particular real-world community.
- Its central tension is exploitation. The Anthropoi’s commercial ambitions collide with the valley’s reverence for the mountain, and the publisher says catastrophe follows.
- Critical interpretations should remain open. The publisher’s materials support reading the work as a warning about resource exploitation and environmental collapse, but do not establish a definitive reading of colonialism, Indigenous representation, or the Anthropocene.
Publication, languages, and formats
HarperCollins India announced a standalone Fourth Estate edition in April 2021, planned for January 2022 in English and Hindi as an ebook and audiobook. In its May 2022 announcement, HarperCollins described the published book as available in both languages in print, ebook, and audio forms. Google Books records a 2022 Fourth Estate India edition.
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- Santorella Publications Model#635344022045
| What the publisher announced | Availability established by the announcements |
|---|---|
| English | Print, ebook, and audio |
| Hindi | Print, ebook, and audio |
Those announcements establish the publisher’s stated formats and languages, not current stock or availability in every country. Check the edition and format offered by a retailer in your region before buying.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is it a documentary?
No: it is a work of fiction presented as a fable, not a documentary film or nonfiction report. For documentary viewers, its subject may still resonate with films about human pressure on the natural world, but the book’s imagined setting and literary form are central to what it is.
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