River of Smoke
Book description
'As hypnotic as an opium dream and pretty unputdownable' Daily Mail
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…
Why read it?
1 author picked River of Smoke as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Amitav Ghosh is my favorite novelist; drawing on rich historical knowledge, he draws you into the lives of South Asians and how these are shaped by global events.
This novel, the second in a trilogy, is highly relevant for this list. Set in the late 1800s, he reconstructs the interconnected lives of Indian merchant entrepreneurs shipping opium from Afghanistan to China for the British and the European merchants in Canton (Guangzhou) using this to access the Chinese economy, also narrating how Hong Kong was transformed into a European-occupied free enterprise island.
It set me thinking about the lives of all…
From Eric's list on understanding how Europe (and the USA) became prosperous.
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