A
New York Times Book Review
Editors' Choice
Washington Post
Notable Fiction Book of Year
A NPR Best Book of the Year
In Amitav Ghosh's
Sea of Poppies
, the Ibis began its treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean, bound for the cane fields of Mauritius with a cargo of indentured servants. Now, in
River of Smoke
, the former slave ship flounders in the Bay of Bengal, caught in the midst of a deadly cyclone.
The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. Meanwhile, the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries horticulturists determined to track down the priceless botanical treasures of China. All will converge in Canton's Fanqui-town, or Foreign Enclave, a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars. A spectacular adventure, but also a bold indictment of global avarice,
is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance.