Description
Book SynopsisThe Ganges and the Tay, the largest water courses in their two countries, are sources of life, conflict and industrial and historical change. The Ganga and the Tay is an epic concrete poem in which the River Ganges and the River Tay relate the historical importance of the ties between India and Scotland and their contemporary relevance as a natural symbol of continuity and peace. The poem is illustrated with beautiful photographs of both great rivers, which explore their shared, but unique, personalities through their histories, geographies, mythologies and environments.
Trade ReviewThe book is certainly a conceptual and poetic achievement... THE NEWSTATESMAN
Bashabi Fraser's epic tale of two nations, Scotland and India, as told by the competing voices of the River Tay and the Ganges, brilliantly reinvents the flyting tradition in Scottish poetry. A rich blend of mythic, historical, and geographical storytelling, her poem explores aspects of India and Scotland from a radically unusual perspective, paying tribute to the close links between both post-colonial nations. The framework of Hindu imagery for the voice of the Ganges come across most vividly, as does the 'leaping salmon' vigour of the Tay. Passages of sublime lyricism, combined with bardic narrative energy, fuse into a poem which displays very much her own vision, a 21st. century one. And it is a great read! Mario Relich.
In the art of Bashabi Fraser the cultures of India and Scotland richly blend, and in this magnificent poem the two living traditions speak to each other through the riverine oracles of the Ganges and the Tay.' RICHARD HOLLOWAY
