River of Smoke
Book - 2011 Fiction, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Ghosh, Amitav None on shelf No requests on this item
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"The Ibis, loaded to its gunwales with a cargo of indentured servants, is in the grip of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal; among the dozens flailing for survival are Neel, the pampered raja who has been convicted of embezzlement; Paulette, the French orphan masquerading as a deck hand; and Deeti, the widowed poppy grower fleeing her homeland with her love, Kalua. The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. And the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries "Fitcher' Penrose, a horticulturist determined to track down the priceless treasures of China that are hidden in plain sight: plants that have the power to heal, or beautify, or intoxicate. All will converge in Canton's Fanqui-Town, or Foreign Enclave: a tumultuous world unto itself where civilizations clash and sometime fuse. It is a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars. Spectacular coincidences, startling reversals of fortune, and tender love stories abound. But this is much more that an irresistible page-turner. The blind quest for money, the primacy of the drug trade, the concealment of base impulses behind the rhetoric of freedom: in River of Smoke, the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries meet, and the result is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance. Critics praised Sea of Poppies for its vibrant storytelling, antic humor, and rich narrative scope; now Amitav Ghosh continues the epic that has charmed and compelled readers all over the globe"--Provided by publisher.
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SERIES
Ibis trilogy
2.
PUBLISHED
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Year Published: 2011
Description: 522 p.
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780374174231
0374174237
SUBJECTS
Schooners -- Fiction.
Voyages and travels -- Fiction.
Sailors -- Fiction.
Social classes -- India -- Fiction.
Opium trade -- History -- Fiction.
India -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction.
Historical fiction.