Chief economic advisor turns literature guide at lecture

Novels and reportages are vivid with details that can paint an informed picture about a country or a society. Arvind Subramanian, chief economic advisor, was first struck by this after writing a paper on Mauritius. Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain and V S Naipaul have all written about the place. Both Twain and Nobel-winner Le Clezio describe the hurricanes that used to ravage the island in the 1800s. “I learnt a much better sense of vulnerability of the place after reading them,” said Subramanian.

If one holds the theory that geography determines the fate of nations, literature is aplenty on it, whether it is ‘The Leopard’ by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa or ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ by Jared Diamond, said Subramanian.