Description
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008
''Sea of Poppies boasts a varied collection of characters to love and hate, and provides wonderfully detailed descriptions . . . utterly involving and piles on tension until the very last page'' Sunday Times
At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.
In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from an evangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations.
The va
Trade Review
Ripping post-colonial yarn . . . Ghosh spins a fine story with a quite irresistible flow, breathing exuberant life ... an absorbing vision * Guardian *
This is a panoramic adventure story, with a Dickensian energy and scope * Sunday Telegraph *
The fantastic Anglo-Asian language they speak is infectious, and the sombre yet uncertain conclusion leaves one eager for the second novel in the trilogy * Daily Telegraph *
Massively entertaining and narratively compelling * London Review of Books *
There can be fewer more exciting settings for a novel than a sea-tossed sailing ship ... Ghosh piles detail upon detail in a rumbustical adventure * The Times *
