The Hungry Tide was written by Amitav Ghosh. A story of adventure, identity, and history, it takes place after a tsunami in the Indian Ocean and is set in Sundarbans, a vast and rural group of small islands off the eastern coast of India. Ghosh has been praised for his rich descriptions of the setting, his ability to blend the various characters's perspectives together artfully and for the way he moves from the present to the past seamlessly. The story is narrated from the third point of view by an omniscient narrator.

Having multiple characters with prominent perspectives is a good reason to use an omniscient narrator, rather than having one character narrate the story. An omniscient narrator gives readers a more well-rounded view of the story and the characters because they know everything going on in each one's head. It is easier to link the characters and their perspectives because the omniscient narrator can see into their minds. In other words, the omniscient narrator can move throughout the plot of the story or from one character to another and is not trapped in one character's perspective. The Hungry Tide tells its story through the viewpoints of multiple characters. Different worlds colliding is a central part of the novel, so an omniscient narrator is quite effective here.