| Edition |
First American edition. |
| Description |
522 pages ; 24 cm |
| Series |
Ibis trilogy ; [bk. 2] |
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Ghosh, Amitav, 1956-
Ibis trilogy ; bk. 2.
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| Summary |
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. Amid a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, three vessels, and the diverse occupants within, converge on Canton's Fanqui-Town, or Foreign Enclave, which is a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars. |
| Note |
"Originally published in 2011 by John Murray (Publishers), Great Britain"--T.p. verso. |
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Sequel to: Sea of poppies. |
| Subject |
Schooners -- Fiction.
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Voyages and travels -- Fiction.
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Sailors -- Fiction.
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Cyclones -- Fiction.
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Social classes -- India -- Fiction.
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Opium trade -- History -- Fiction.
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India -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction.
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| ISBN |
9780374174231 hardback $28.00 |
|
0374174237 hardback $28.00 |
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