by Amitav Ghosh
First published 2011
The Ibis fights through a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal with its human cargo barely surviving. Neel, a raja convicted of embezzlement, clings to life alongside Paulette, a French orphan disguised as a sailor, and Deeti, a widowed poppy farmer who fled India with her lover Kalua. The storm also batters the clipper Anahita, heavy with the biggest opium shipment ever bound for Canton. On the nursery ship Redruth, botanist Frederick Penrose searches for Chinese medicinal plants that can heal or intoxicate. All three vessels sail toward Canton's Foreign Enclave, where East meets West in a volatile mix of commerce and culture. The opium trade dominates everything, masked by talk of free markets and progress. Money drives men to extremes while love stories bloom amid the chaos. Canton becomes a powder keg where the smallest incident could trigger the Opium Wars.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Bay of Bengal, Canton, China
Period: 19th-century
528 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: violence