RIVER OF SMOKE – AMITAV GHOSH

As hypnotic as an opium dream and pretty unputdownable” – Daily Mail

In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared – two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading toward Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two‑masted brig heading east out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?

On the grand scale of a historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm‑tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite the emperor’s efforts to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant from Bombay, his estranged half‑Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette, and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower throws them together. All struggle to cope with their losses – and, for some, unimaginable freedoms – in the alleys and waterways of 19th‑century Canton.

As transporting and mesmerizing as an opiate‑induced dream, River of Smoke will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty‑first‑century literature.

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