The Calcutta Chromosome

The Calcutta Chromosome
First UK edition
AuthorAmitav Ghosh
LanguageEnglish
GenreThriller, speculative fiction
PublisherPicador
Publication date
1996
Publication placeIndia
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages309
ISBN0-330-34758-6
OCLC35759000

The Calcutta Chromosome is a 1996 English-language novel by Indian author Amitav Ghosh. The book, set in Calcutta and New York City at some unspecified time in the future, is a medical thriller that dramatizes the adventures of people who are brought together by a mysterious turn of events. The book is loosely based on the life and times of Sir Ronald Ross, the Nobel Prize–winning scientist who achieved a breakthrough in malaria research in 1898. The novel was the recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1997.

Ghosh employs a factual background for the invented events in the novel, drawing upon Ross's Memoirs which were published in 1923.