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 lover,
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 Frederick "Fitcher" Penrose, a
horticulturist determined to track down the priceless treasures of China
that are hidden in plain sight: its 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 sometimes 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 than 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
converge, 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 nar¬rative scope; now Amitav Ghosh
continues the epic that has charmed and compelled readers all over the
globe. PRAISE FOR River of Smoke "On one level, [River of Smoke] is a
remarkable feat of research, bringing alive the hybrid customs of food
and dress and the competing philosophies of the period with intimate
precision; on another it is a subversive act of empathy, viewing a whole
panorama of world history from the 'wrong' end of the telescope. The
real trick, though, is that it is also fabulously entertaining." --Tim
Adams, The Observer (London) "Eloquent . . . Fascinating . . . [River
of Smoke's] strength lies in how thoroughly Ghosh fills out his
research with his novelistic fantasy, seduced by each new situation that
presents itself and each new character, so that at their best the scenes
read with a sensual freshness as if they were happening now." --Tessa
Hadley, The Guardian "[This] vast book has a Dickensian sweep of
characters, high- and low-life intermingling . . . Ghosh conjures up a
thrilling sense of place." --The Economist
