Through extraordinary first-hand accounts Amitav Ghosh presents a compelling chronicle of the turmoil of our times. `Dancing in Combodia recreates the first-ever visit to by a troupe of Cambodian dancers with King Sisowath, in 1906. Ghosh links this historic visit, celebrated by Rodin in a series of sketches, to the more recent history of the Khmer Rouge revolution. The Town by the Sea records his experiences in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands just days after the tsunami; and in September 11 he takes us back to that fateful day when he retrieved his young daughter from school in New York, sick with the knowledge that she will be marked by the same kind of tumult that has defined his own life.