The Nutmeg's Curse

Parables for a Planet in Crisis

By: Amitav Ghosh

Narrated by: Sam Dastor

In this ambitious successor to The Great Derangement, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh finds the origins of our contemporary climate crisis in Western colonialism’s violent exploitation of human life and the natural environment.

A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh’s new book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.

Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg’s Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.

©2021 Amitav Ghosh (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughten Ltd.

Colonialism vs indigenous people’s use of the land

It was shocking to me that throughout the world colonialism started with destruction of native populations. Then this was followed by the destruction of the land and creating mono crops for the most profit. Perhaps we in the western world need to look to the indigenous people on how to treat our environment and our planet.

Worst narrator I’ve ever heard

The narrator mispronounces a lot of words—most atrociously, during a section on American mistreatment of Native people, he repeatedly pronounced Diné (Navajo) dine as in dining, instead of Dee-nay—but worse, he does these horrible mocking “American” accents every time he reads a quote from an American. He doesn’t do silly voices for any other nationality, and it’s hard to tell if he is doing it out of contempt or if he’s simply so untalented he can’t do any better (but if the latter, why isn’t he trying to go accents for every nationality?).

Anyway, the narrator is incompetent and spoils an otherwise excellent book. I recommend reading it in print or if you need audio, using an AI reader instead of buying the audiobook version.

Dreadful Narration is a Distraction

This is an excellent, extraordinary book, but the narrator was distracting and all wrong for the author's voice. He is much too old, sounding as if he were speaking from the 1950s. His attempts to quote Americans in the appropriate accent were painful. Remarkably egregious was his mis-pronunciation of the Navajo word Dineh, as DINE when it should be din-ay. Over and over he said that. It is printed accurately in the book--which I'm reading. I've purchased dozens of Audible books and this is only the second narrator whose voice has been such a thorn. Very frustrating.

Insightful

The book shares many unique insights that put in perspective long held views on common topics.

performance....

Excellent reading, but please, Readers! please learn how to pronounce names before pronouncing them repeatedly thereby essentially teaching the audience the wrong name,. Dine, for example, when speaking of the Dine people, should be pronounced dee ney. It should not be pronounced as the synonym for eating dinner.