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Amitav Ghosh

River of Smoke: Ibis Trilogy Book 2 Hardcover – 9 Jun. 2011

by Amitav Ghosh (Author)

4.2 2,666 ratings

Book 2 of 3: The Ibis Trilogy

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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.

Book 2 of 3

The Ibis Trilogy
Print length

528 pages
Language

English
Publisher

John Murray
Publication date

9 Jun. 2011
Dimensions

15.7 x 4.3 x 24 cm
ISBN-10

9780719568985
ISBN-13

978-0719568985
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Amitav Ghosh
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Product description

Review

Praise for River of Smoke ― ---

'Ghosh's novel is a tense, compelling account... The accumulation of minutiae puts the reader so firmly in the time and place that the whole thing becomes as hypnotic as an opium dream and pretty unputdownable' ― Daily Mail

'For those who like to see history bought alive through the deployment of wave upon wave of plausible detail, River of Smoke should prove a marvellous read' ― Literary Review

'Any good historical novel should teach the reader some history as well as sweeping him or her along with an unfolding narrative. Few do this as well as Amitav Ghosh...who puts his considerable learning at the service of his powers as a great storyteller. A book whose conclusion again left me panting for the next volume in this trilogy' ― Financial Times

'The novel'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 the scenes read with a sensual freshness as if they were happening now' ― Guardian

Best of all, Ghosh, through the depth of his research, lightly worn, has captured the many cross-currents of a fascinating historical period ― Seven

Praise for Sea of Poppies ― ---

'Sea of Poppies boasts a varied collection of characters to love and hate, and provides wonderfully detailed descriptions of opium production ... utterly involving and piles on tension until the very last page' ― Peter Parker, Sunday Times

'Ripping post-colonial yarn ... Ghosh spins a fine story with a quite irresistible flow, breathing exuberant life ... an absorbing vision' ― Guardian

'Ghosh's narrative is enriched with a wealth of historical detail ... as well as intricate characterisation that makes interaction among the diverse group truly absorbing' ― The Times

'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

'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

An utterly involving book ― Sunday Times

'This is a panoramic adventure story, with a Dickensian energy and scope' ― Sunday Telegraph

About the Author

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford and published the first of six novels, The Circle of Reason in 1986. He has taught at a number of institutions, most recently Harvard, and written for many publications. He currently divides his time between Calcutta, Goa and Brooklyn. The first novel in the Ibis Trilogy, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0719568986
Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Murray (9 Jun. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780719568985
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0719568985
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.7 x 4.3 x 24 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,823,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 89,845 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- 134,932 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
- 135,984 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
4.2 2,666 ratings

About the author

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Amitav Ghosh

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Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956), is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in English fiction.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by David Shankbone (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Amazon Customer

Not for under 18s

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2023

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Loved the first one ine, loved this too except for the unnecessary, incongruous & belaboured (and childish) section on one character's espousal of the dangers of mastur bation to another. Detracted from the book totally. The end could have been achieved by much more appropriate & believable means.

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RB BRU

Rollicking good read bursting with historical detail

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2013

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This is the second book in Amitav Ghosh's IBIS trilogy. I have to say, I wasn't over-impressed by the first book (Sea of Poppies). At times the characterisations and plot felt a bit contrived and clichéd. Nevertheless I decided to persevere with the second book and I'm very glad I did!

River of Smoke begins with an update on some of the main characters from Sea of Poppies but then focuses on just a couple of them (mainly Neel, the deposed Raja and Pauline Lambert, the young French botanist). It also introduces some brilliant new characters and moves the action from India to Canton where it exposes the horrific extent of the English "trade" in opium. Ghosh spares us no gory detail and paints a truly awful image of both the extent to which British Traders were prepared to go to protect their illicit trade and the destructive effect on the Chinese people.

I thought the characterisations were much stronger than in Sea of Poppies. Particularly well-developed are two of the new characters, Seth Bahram Modi, who is caught between wanting to live a good religious life and yet continue to provide for his family through trading opium, and the enigmatic Robin Chinnery, whose letters manage to both evoke the conversational ease and joviality with which we might write to friends whilst containing a wealth of historical detail. In fact the historical detail is another great strength of the book and has clearly been painstakingly researched yet is (almost) always seamlessly integrated so as not to appear like an ad-hoc history lesson tacked onto the novel.

There are initially several different strings to the plot as we follow the characters' journeys to Canton. But eventually they all weave together rather cleverly. I have no doubt that Ghosh will work out how to link the story back to the other initial characters in the final instalment (Flood of Fire, due early 2015) and I can't wait to read what happens.

3 people found this helpful

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Diana at The Saker

Amazing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 December 2013

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River of Smike is the 2nd in the Ibis Trilogy. I first read Sea of Poppies (in paperback) and was so enthralled that I ordered River of Smoke the same day that I finished Sea of Poppies and I was not dissappopinted. Sea of Poppies deals with the growth and production of opium in India in the mid 1800's and also the way in which people were transported from India to provide cheap labour in (I think) Mauritius once the slave trade had been abolished. I became so involved with the characters that I could not wait to follow their story. River of Smoke picks up one two or three of characters and tells their story when they end up, by various means, in the trading enclave outside Canton. The stories are cleverly interwoven and the revolvs around the built up of the tensions between the Chinese who want to stop the importation of opium and the English (the East India Comapny), Amercains and Indians who are make such incredible profits from transporting opium from India to China. It culminates with the traders being driven from Canton immediatly prior to the opium wars.

This is a fascinating epic, not only are the characters draw you in but the books are brilliantly researched and very informative. This is an era of history which was not taught in schools in my time and of which I was woefully ignorant. I am now eagerly awaiting volume 3 in the trilogy. Highly recommended.

3 people found this helpful

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lushchica

brilliant writing.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2012

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have to say that at first i found this a little dissappointing after 'the sea of poppies'. i loved that...loved the completely mixed group of people on the ship, loved the lascars language, loved the moveble feast. but...i knew this was a trilogy about the opium wars...so it had to stop travelling, and get centered in canton and the despicable trade.
when i was at university i studied chinese civilization as an outside course, and i wrote an essay entitled 'the opium wars. the most indefensible conflict in british history. discuss.' well...here is the discusson! it is actually so well written it makes you angry...especially as for years afterwards the chinese were portrayed at the perpertrators of opium dens...when it was the british who caused them. sorry to go about the history...but this novel is so fresh that it seems like its just happened.
and yet there is so much more here...some of the letters from ralph to puggly actually made me laugh out loud. you just cant but feel sorry for mr moddie, not that he is an innocent..but he is an indian, and also ground down. and the whole passage about meeting napoleon on st helena..bloody magic. this is a huge book...it encompasses the history of the whole time, but told through people who are small players. i suggest you just download it...and read it after the sea of poppies.,..though it stand up well enough on its own, its nice to have background.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Terrific novel. A must read. The first book in the Trilogy was excellent; this is even better...!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2015

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Ghosh is a brilliant storyteller. As he weaves the stories of his main protagonists, set against the backdrop of Canton not long before the Opium Wars, you really get a sense of what the place might have been like during that era. The book really feels like it transports you there...!

The way Ghosh uses the varied perspectives of his characters upon the same set of events is brilliant; you see them through the eyes of a Parsi business man, through the words of a Chinese Official, by the sense of adventure of the youth who makes it to Canton in search of happiness. One gets a fuller, richer and more rounded appreciation of the place and how it all unfolds.

Some of the passages are extracts from real letters and speeches from the archives.

It is a historical novel of the highest order but above all a great story. Highly recommended.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2021

Verified Purchase

This is book 2 in the trilogy. I gave book 1 5 stars as it was brilliant. This book seems to concentrate more on detail and less on the characters, and I think it's a shame and slightly falls down for that reason. He's still a great author and well worth following.

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River of Smoke: Ibis Trilogy Book 2 Hardcover – 9 Jun. 2011

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