River of Smoke
A Novel
The Ibis Trilogy (Volume 2)Amitav Ghosh
Picador
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$21.00
Picador
Picador
On Sale: 10/02/2012
ISBN: 9781250013750
528 PagesA New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A 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, River of Smoke is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance.
NPR Best Book of the Year
RIVER OF SMOKE (Chapter One)
Deeti's shrine was hidden in a cliff, in a far corner of Mauritius, where the island's western and southern shorelines collide to form the wind-whipped dome of the Morne Brabant. The site was a geological anomaly...
Praise for River of Smoke
“Brilliantly done…A monumental tribute to the pain and glory of an earlier era of globalization…There will be more, undoubtedly, when the final installment of the Ibis trilogy arrives. I can hardly bear to wait.” —The Washington Post
“Gripping…Ghosh has made humanely clear the cold cynicism of the Opium Wars.” —Richard Eder, The Boston Globe
“Ghosh continues to amaze. Few authors since Melville and Joyce have excelled at both rambunctious, rangy linguistic play and deeply and lovingly observed human insight like this.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Masterful…River of Smoke is a wonderful mixture of people, places, and story that captures a moment in history like an insect snared in amber.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Wonderful…[Gosh] is creating one of the best historical narratives in recent memory.” —Time Out (New York)
In the Press
RIVER OF SMOKE by Amitav GhoshKirkus Book Reviews
Read the Kirkus Review of RIVER OF SMOKE . Ghosh sets the second volume of his Ibis trilogy in 1838, appropriately enough, because at heart he's a 19th-century novelist with a sweeping vision of character and culture. - Kirkus Reviews
Reviews from Goodreads
Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
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