Sea of Poppies: Amazon.co.uk: Amitav Ghosh: Books

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Product Description

Sunday Times
'A glorious babel of a novel...marvellously inventive...utterly involving... The next volume cannot come too soon' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Praise for The Glass Palace:

(. )

‘Breathtaking … Ghosh is a deeply serious writer, sure of his human and historical insights … I cannot think of another contemporary writer with whom it would be so thrilling to go so far, so fast’

(The Times )

‘A splendid, exotic, panoramic saga, with fascinating detail about the period and the countries involved. Eminently readable, indeed a real page-turner’

(Publishing News )

‘A born storyteller … never for a moment is the reader not propelled irresistibly forward to discover what happens next’

(Literary Review )

Praise for The Hungry Tide:

(. )

‘A marvellous novel … an ambitious, absorbing, vivid, deeply involving story … the narrative is full of excitement. Here is a thoughtful examination of what it means to be fully human’

(Sunday Times )

‘An exceptionally intricate and rich novel’

(Financial Times )

‘Ghosh probes the hearts of his characters and examines the nature of their identity … the climax is a tremendous scene, but it is the haunting quality of this novel that stays in the memory’

(Sunday Telegraph )

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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
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3.8 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)

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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Addictive, as in the title, 6 Jul 2008

By	William Notcutt "drwilliam" (Norfolk, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was attracted to buy this book through prior knowledge of the author, an interest in India and its history, and a professional interest in the subject of the title. Recognising that this was volume 1 of a trilogy, I realised there would be a lot of scene setting with characters establishing themselves. I thought this might be heavy going but I was wrong. I enjoyed the stories and the backgrounds that lead to them all being on the ship, the Ibis on their way to Mauritius. Throughout this wafted the sheer unpleasantness of life, the smells, the violence, the prejudice and the struggles that so many had had to overcome. Inevitably the main characters stand out as survivors with hidden depths that emerge over time. Perhaps a bit 2 dimensional as this stage.

Amitav Ghosh has done a huge amount of research into the background of life 200 years ago in India and this is reflected in the use of the vernacular languages of the time - seafaring talk, colonial English, a multitude of Indian words etc. On the one hand this was difficult to manage at first and I kept looking for a glossary (it would need to have been about 20 pages!). However, as I got used to it I found myself able to understand a lot more. My lack of understanding often matched the characters lack of comprehension of what was being said to them. Overall this mixture of language added to the flavour of the book but could be off-putting some.

It was a fast, engrossing read for me, with an unexpected cliff-hanger at the end and I am looking forward to the next instalment. I recommend it.

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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars children of the ship, 1 Sep 2008

By	William Rycroft "blogs @ Just William's Luck" (Hertfordshire, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sea of Poppies (Hardcover)

The last sea-faring trilogy I read was William Golding's To The Ends Of The Earth (made up of Rites of Passage, Close Quarters and Fire Down Below). Ok, it's the only sea-faring trilogy I've read but I really enjoyed it. Sacred Hunger, which shared the Booker Prize in 1992 with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (what a year!), is another fantastic maritime narrative so I had high hopes for the first instalment of Amitav Ghosh's projected trilogy; would I be left in the doldrums or with wind in my sails?

The setting is an interesting one: the Indian subcontinent in the 1830's finds the British East India Company exerting their influence through the trade in opium. Ghosh shows us the effects of this trade immediately through Deeti whose husband, as well as working in the local opium factory, is also an acknowledged addict or 'afeemkhor'. In a great set piece we are guided through the processing of opium as a distressed Deeti runs through the factory to find her husband. Soon she is widowed and in order to avoid the attentions of her brother in law is prepared to place herself on her husband's funeral pyre. It is a fate she will be rescued from and as she and her rescuer Kalua, a gentle giant, run from the pursuing funeral party they become the first of many who find themselves heading towards a ship, the Ibis.

Ghosh assembles a varied cast covering the wide spectrum of nationalities, castes and background that his colonial setting provides. A fallen aristocrat, an opium addict and a freed slave are just a few of the characters whose fate is tied up with the Ibis and the slow, inevitable progress of the characters towards her is like the flowing of tributaries into a river, growing and developing as they move until combined, they head out together to sea.

The Ibis is as strong a character as any of its passengers. Appearing first in a vision, Deeti sees it as an animal, a bird in flight, later the hold of the ship seems like a cave, the hammocks strung across it appearing like cobwebs. The ship is known as a 'blackbirder' having been used as a slave ship and it is a human cargo for her again at this time of tension with China and the constraints that places on the trade in opium. Most of those on board are going to the island of Mauritius as indentured labourers, the differences between them as regards caste or culture dissolved by their predicament. The women are the first to articulate their new status.

'...from now on there are no differences between us, we are jahaz-bhai and jahaz-bahen to each other; all of us children of the ship.'

That short extract gives you a taste of the exotic language employed. The wealth of research condensed into Michael Chabon's 'Gentlemen Of The Road' lead to the text groaning under the weight of obsolete words. But given the scale of this novel Ghosh's peppering of the text with exotica, whilst at first creating a disorienting effect similar to reading the nadsat language invented by Anthony Burgess for his teenagers in A Clockwork Orange, slowly grows into a rich and exciting language of the period and in particular the language of those that live on the water.

'From the silmagoors who sat on the ghats, sewing sails, Jodu had learnt the names of each piece of canvas, in English and in Laskari- that motley tongue, spoken nowhere but on the water, whose words were as varied as the port's traffic, an anarchic medley of Portugese caluzes and Kerala pattimars, Arab booms and Bengal paunchways, Malay proas and Tamil catamarans, Hindusthani pulwars and English snows - yet beneath the surface of this farrago of sound, meaning flowed as freely as the currents beneath the crowded press of boats.'

The ship's first mate Crowle has a true sailor's vocabulary ('Pander, y'spigot-sucking gobble-prick. With all the wide welkin around us, why d'ye always have to be beating the booby right here?). The man he's speaking to there, Baboo Nob Kissin (whose name is enough to raise a smirk I'm afraid) has the kind of broken English perfect for double entendre but flirts dangerously with the 'Yoda' problem, where disordered syntax can make it all sound a little ridiculous. But with such a broad pallet Ghosh is able to show the full range of diversity on board with differences in class, caste or station indicated by the words or language used to communicate.

As befits a novel of this scale we are able to look at the wider world. The period is perfect territory for a view on the politics of colonialism, trade and that notion of freedom which is so tested in an era where slavery is coming to an end only to be replaced by the subjugation of people through addiction. It is a place from which we can look both backwards and forwards of course and it is this ability which means the writing has not only a historical significance but a resonance for the times we live in now.

'The truth is, sir, that men do what their power permits them to do. We are no different from the Pharaos or the Mongols, the difference is only that when we kill people we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause. It is this presence of virtue, I promise you, that will never be forgiven by history.'

It is that which means that the Ibis trilogy could be not just fantastic storytelling but an important comment on our history.

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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flat Sea, 13 Oct 2008

By	A reader (Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Sea of Poppies (Hardcover)

"Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh is a hugely ambitious book set during the Opium Wars. The plot revolves around a motley cast of characters who board a former slaving ship, the Ibis, each representative of some part of the wider story of the history and politics of the time. There is a good deal of "authentic" seafaring slang, pidgin English and other languages, but overdone to the point where many sentences stutter to a halt to include them. Normally I would say more about the plot of a novel, but the problem with "Sea of Poppies" is that it feels like a lot of scene setting. This may have something to do with the author's intent to make this the first of a trilogy. If so, I hope future instalments are more engrossing.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Dissenting voice
Clearly I'm missing the point of this novel. For me, the plot was thin, the characters unengaging. Ultimately what killed it for me were the long passages of supposedly authentic... Read more

Published 18 days ago by Robert Alexander

1.0 out of 5 stars Feeble myth-buster
Oh dear.

This poor book's only positive contribution is to nail a couple of urban myths about fiction writing. Read more

Published 18 days ago by bloodsimple

4.0 out of 5 stars Sea of Poppies
This is a fascinating novel for anyone interested in India and its history. The dialect words and shipboard slang add flavour without making you want to look up every word, the... Read more

Published 1 month ago by M. Johns

4.0 out of 5 stars Energetic, ambitious and immensely moving......
Another tremendous piece of storytelling from Ghosh. In Sea of Poppies he brings together a disparate group of characters who all find themselves aboard the Ibis as she sails... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Wynne Kelly

3.0 out of 5 stars mixed impressions
I am not quite sure what to make of this book.
It is a bit like a 19th century adventure novel, spiced up with some not very subtle musings about identity and metamorphosis... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Pukka Sahib

5.0 out of 5 stars Literature at its Very Best
Somehow when I was in college I missed the fact that the British at one time were drug manufactures and drug pushers. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Sara Hackett

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid characters and scenes
An enjoyable book with many vivid characters and scenes fluently written and expertly brought together. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Parvati P.

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard work at times but worth persevering
I don't normally read historical novels but this one drew me in. It took a little while to get into the novel as the cast of characters is large and the narrative jumps between... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Melanie Trevelyan

4.0 out of 5 stars Stage setter
There are many very good reviews on this book already. My take on it? I liked it enough to be on the look out for part 2 in the trilogy, but that is also its main setback. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Arjan Van Woensel

3.0 out of 5 stars A slow read
As the first part of a trilogy the novel is certainly detailed enough to have set the scene. A few aspects failed to thrill me: inconsistent use of syntax, which is annoying as... Read more

Published 6 months ago by SJSmith

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