For settlers here, life is precarious: attacks by deadly tigers are common, and the threat of eviction and consequent social unrest is ever present.

As the three of them explore the tidal backwaters, they are drawn unaware into the hidden undercurrents of this isolated world, where political turmoil exacts a personal toll that is every bit as powerful as the ravaging tide.

The Morichjhanpi massacre of 1978–79, when the government of West Bengal forcibly evicted thousands of Bengali refugees who had settled on the island, forms a background for some parts of the novel.

[2] Alfred Hickling gave the book a mixed review in The Guardian, saying describing it as "a Conradian expedition, and a Forster ish collision between western assumptions and Indian reality, which throws in some Indiana Jones-style encounters with tigers and crocodiles" and concluded "Like the elusive appearances of the river dolphins, the pattern of the novel can occasionally seem erratic, but vigilance is rewarded.

"[3] In The Independent, Krishna Dutta compared the book to Manik Banerjee's The Boatman of Padma and Samaresh Basu's Ganga, but was mixed on Ghosh's attempts to convey Indian cultural and linguistic references to a broad audience.