Sea of Poppies: A Novel

Amitav Ghosh

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Sep 29, 2009 - Fiction - 528 pages

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).

What people are saying

Review: Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1)

User Review  - Amy - Goodreads

A wonderful adventure story. Think Dickens. Think eight-week series on Masterpiece Theatre. Think Star Wars trilogy, in a way. This has epic characters, richly detailed back stories, good versus evil ...

Review: Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy #1)

User Review  - Dana - Goodreads

This book is a great story, but there were a couple issues I had with it that unfortunately mean that it earns one star. The author uses a very obvious trope to tie each initially disparate story line ...

Contents

• Section 1: 3
• Section 2: 26
• Section 3: 52
• Section 4: 69
• Section 5: 88
• Section 6: 120
• Section 7: 157
• Section 8: 179
• Section 9: 198
• Section 10: 208
• Section 11: 227
• Section 12: 260
• Section 13: 287
• Section 14: 306
• Section 15: 326
• Section 16: 345
• Section 17: 364
• Section 18: 386
• Section 19: 396
• Section 20: 418
• Section 21: 447
• Section 22: 476
• Section 23: 497
• Section 24: 501

About the author

AMITAV GHOSH is the internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Glass Palace, The Great Derangement, and the Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire). He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. Ghosh divides his time between Kolkata and Goa, India, and Brooklyn, New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Sea of Poppies: A Novel; Volume 1 of The Ibis Trilogy
• Author: Amitav Ghosh
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009
• ISBN: 1429930810, 9781429930819
• Length: 528 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Historical / General; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Sea Stories; Fiction / World Literature / India / 21st Century