French Literature Reviews - 2026

Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
History, Politics and Society

Review published in Acta Fabula (June 2025, vol. 26, no. 6): “Spices and Empires: A Decolonial History of Ecological Catastrophe”, by Judith Sarfati Lanter.

“What must it feel like to stand face to face with someone who has made it quite clear that they have the power to put an end to your world and that they intend to do so?”

On an April night in 1621, on the island of Banda Besar in the far eastern reaches of the Indian Ocean, a lantern is overturned. This single incident triggers the massacre of the island's population by Dutch soldiers. The motive behind this genocide: a global monopoly on the nutmeg trade.

Using nutmeg as his focal point, Amitav Ghosh exposes the resource curse that turned the Banda Islands into the site of one of history’s earliest extractivist wars—and a foundational flashpoint for the profound crises of our own time: ecological collapse and colonial violence.

From Banda Besar to Standing Rock and deep into the Amazon rainforest, the author pieces together accounts of destruction and resistance like the fragments of a puzzle.

Straddling travelogue and historical investigation, The Nutmeg's Curse underscores the pivotal role our collective narratives play in healing the world.

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Born in Calcutta in 1956, Amitav Ghosh is one of the preeminent contemporary anglophone writers. Internationally acclaimed for sweeping historical novels such as Sea of Poppies (2010, Booker Prize shortlist) and The Circle of Reason (Prix Médicis étranger, 1990), and widely praised for his works of nonfiction (including The Great Derangement), Ghosh is recognized as a leading voice in ecological thought.

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You can read an article about this book on en-attendant-nadeau.fr…

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Press Review:

“We are deeply indebted to Amitav Ghosh for his brilliant mind, his biting pen, and his generous soul. Do not miss this book, and above all, do not assume you already know its contents, because you would be wrong.”
– Naomi Klein

“The most perceptive cultural critic of this new era of climate change.”
– New York Magazine

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Table of Contents

1. Selamon’s Lantern
2. “Burn their houses everywhere”
3. “The fruits of the nutmeg are dead”
4. Terraforming
5. “Before long, we will all be gone”
6. Ties to the Earth
7. Monstrous Gaia
8. Fossilized Forests
9. Bottlenecks
10. Father of All Things
11. Vulnerabilities
12. A Fog of Numbers
13. The War That Dare Not Speak Its Name
14. “The divine angel of dissatisfaction”
15. Brutes
16. “The Falling Sky”
17. Utopias
18. Vitalist Politics
19. Hidden Forces

Straddling the boundaries of historical investigation, cultural critique, and travelogue, Amitav Ghosh examines how early modern imperialism laid the groundwork for contemporary ecological collapse. By focusing on the bloody Dutch monopoly over the nutmeg trade in the Banda Islands, the author illustrates the long-standing roots of extractivist violence. This work connects past imperial conquests to modern struggles against environmental destruction, offering a compelling perspective on how human societies have historically commodified nature at the expense of indigenous populations and fragile ecosystems.

Readers interested in environmental humanities, postcolonial studies, and global history will find this volume particularly engaging. Ghosh contributes significantly to contemporary ecological thought by challenging prevailing narratives about climate change and human agency. The book serves as an essential resource for scholars, students, and general readers seeking to understand the deep historical connections between capitalism, colonialism, and the ongoing planetary crisis, while underscoring the urgent need to reshape our collective relationship with the natural world.