Book description
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 towards 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 an historical epic, River of Smoke
follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China.
There, despite efforts of the emperor 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 out of 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 have thrown together.
All struggle to cope with their losses - and for some, unimaginable
freedoms - in the alleys and crowded 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.
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956 and grew up in Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford
and has taught at a number of institutions, most recently Harvard, and
written for many publications. He is the author of several novels
including the bestselling Sea of Poppies which was shortlisted for the
Man Booker prize in 2008. He currently divides his time between
Calcutta, Goa and Brooklyn.
