The stunningly vibrant final novel in the bestselling Ibis Trilogy
It is 1839 and China has embargoed the trade of opium, yet too much is
at stake in the lucrative business and the British Foreign Secretary has
ordered the colonial government in India to assemble an expeditionary
force for an attack to reinstate the trade. Among those consigned is
Kesri Singh, a soldier in the army of the East India Company. He makes
his way eastward on the Hind, a transport ship that will carry him
from Bengal to Hong Kong.
Along the way, many characters from the Ibis Trilogy come aboard,
including Zachary Reid, a young American speculator in opium futures,
and Shireen, the widow of an opium merchant whose mysterious death in
China has compelled her to seek out his lost son. The Hind docks in
Hong Kong just as war breaks out and opium pours into the market like
monsoon flood. From Bombay to Calcutta, from naval engagements to the
decks of a hospital ship, among embezzlement, profiteering, and
espionage, Amitav Ghosh charts a breathless course through the
culminating moment of the British opium trade and vexed colonial
history.
With all the verve of the first two novels in the trilogy, Flood of
Fire completes Ghosh's unprecedented reenvisioning of the
nineteenth-century war on drugs. With remarkable historic vision and a
vibrant cast of characters, Ghosh brings the Opium Wars to bear on the
contemporary moment with the storytelling that has charmed readers
around the world.
