In 2008, Sea of Poppies was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, England's most prestigious literary award. So he immerses readers in such doings as the workings of an opium factory and in the savage underpinnings of colonial economic engines like the East India Company. Ghosh, a former newspaper reporter who holds a doctorate in social anthropology from Oxford University, is bent on bringing the voices of India's historical underclass to life. While the glories of their meticulously recreated lexicon may occasionally stump readers, the author has helpfully included a witty glossary (supposedly compiled by one character).
Theirs is a polyglot world, ringing with pidgin, Chinglish, Hinglish and the inimitable slang of seafarers. The ship's crew and passengers - opium factory workers, American sailors, French runaways, lascars, coolies, convicts, rajas and sahibs - reflect Calcutta's cosmopolitan racial and socioeconomic swirl. The bustling port city is the site of forbidden romance, disguise, deceit, courtroom dramas and ritual suttees (the practice of burning recent widows).
The ship will henceforth carry opium bound for China and indentured servants to colonies like the British West Indies.Īs the Ibis is outfitted, readers are led through the splendidly exciting cosmos of 1838 Calcutta. Sea of Poppies begins with the conversion of a former slave ship, the Ibis, into a transport vessel. Both seas provide backdrop and engine for Ghosh's tale, the first volume in a projected trilogy. That sea is mirrored by another: the Bay of Bengal, where the opium trade flourished in the early 19th century. Each week, we present leading authors of fiction and nonfiction as they read from and discuss their work.Ī colorful, enticing, yet dangerous image is evoked by the title of Amitav Ghosh's entrancing new novel, Sea of Poppies. Book Reviews Traveling to India on 'The Hungry Tide'īook Tour is a Web feature and podcast.
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