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Jungle Nama by Amitav Ghosh, narrated by Ali Sethi

The legend of Bon Bibi is now available as an audiobook

Jungle Nama, Amitav Ghosh’s fascinating translation and adaptation of one of the legends of the mythical Bon Bibi of the Sunderbans, came out earlier this year with arresting illustrations by New York-based artist Salman Toor. Ghosh’s translation follows the Bengali dwipodi poyar meter, a unique verse meter with 24 syllabic couplets. 

In a simple, lilting tale, Jungle Nama tells the story of greedy merchant Dhona, who tricks a poor boy, Dukhey, into going into the dark mangrove jungles, despite Dukhey’s mother’s anguished pleas. There, Dukhey encounters the legendary Dokkhin Rai, a menacing shapeshifting spirit who appears to humans in the form of a tiger, and is saved by Bon Bibi, the benign goddess of the forest. 

Now, Jungle Nama is available as an audiobook too, voiced by singer-writer Ali Sethi, who has also created the background music and ambient sounds to accompany the narration. The result is a listening experience that is so powerful that one is transported back into those dark, dense jungles where the events unfold.