Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy #1) (Paperback)

Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy #1) By Amitav Ghosh Cover Image

Sea of Poppies: A Novel (The Ibis Trilogy #1) (Paperback)

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This is book number 1 in the The Ibis Trilogy series.

The first in an epic trilogy, Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies is "a remarkably rich saga . . . which has plenty of action and adventure à la Dumas, but moments also of Tolstoyan penetration--and a drop or two of Dickensian sentiment" (The Observer [London]).

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton.

With a panorama of characters whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, Sea of Poppies is "a storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott" (Vogue).

Amitav Ghosh is the author of the bestselling Ibis trilogy, comprised of Sea of Poppies (short-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize), River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. His other novels include The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Médicis étranger, and The Glass Palace. He is the author of many works of nonfiction, including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable and The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. He holds two lifetime achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2018, Ghosh became the first English-language writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Product Details ISBN: 9780312428594
ISBN-10: 0312428596
Publisher: Picador
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Pages: 560
Language: English
Series: The Ibis Trilogy

“A wonderful book, a large ambitious novel in which extraordinary people come to life and vibrant, exotic places are memorably depicted.” —The Rocky Mountain News

“A delight . . . [Ghosh's] descriptions bring a lost world to life.” —The Washington Post

“Brilliant...By the book's stormy and precarious ending, most readers will clutch it like the ship's rail awaiting, just like Ghosh's characters, the rest of the voyage to a destination unknown.” —USA Today

“Ghosh's best and most ambitious work yet. . . . Ghosh writes with impeccable control, and with a vivid and sometimes surprising imagination.” —The New Yorker

“Ghosh, on behalf of history, is unforgiving, but his novel is also a delight.” —Miami Herald

“A storm tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott.” —Vogue

“Amitav Ghosh's new novel speaks in tongues, marvelously capturing the polyglot nature of its characters. . . . Sea of Poppies is marvelous, its range and authority astonishing.” —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Sea of Poppies is a veritable cauldron of energy intermingling with craft.” —Chicago Sun-Times



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