Books
by Amitav Ghosh
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Flood of Fire |
The final part* of his magnificent trilogy draws all the storylines together. It is a tour de force, full of action to the end with its various characters illustrating the lack of moral justification for the Opium Wars. British characters speak an amazing mixture of Indian-English not always easy to read/understand but intended perhaps to show us how India has enriched our language and culture. The deep research does not hold back this vivid tale.
(*Ghosh has hinted that this may in fact not be the end of story after all.)
(Christine Miller - bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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River of Smoke |
Read this only if you've read and enjoyed Sea of Poppies (bwl 48), otherwise you will be totally confused. We follow some of the characters - some seeking their fortune, others chasing an elusive flower - who are transported from Mauritius to the Chinese city of Canton where foreign merchants thrive on the illicit opium trade. It's packed with sights, colours, smells, strange languages and centres on the British belief in the rightness of free-trade, no matter what the human cost.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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Sea of Poppies |
If you like the sound of an historical adventure sweeping across continents and generations, packed with disparate characters ranging from a bankrupt raja, a Chinese opium addict, a beautiful French heroine, a mulatto freedman from Baltimore, sailors, coolies and convicts, then put your feet up, kick off your shoes and indulge. This, the first of a trilogy, written by a master story teller, is absolutely the perfect read for those all encroaching dark winter days.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Glass Palace |
I can't recommend this too highly. Burma, India and Malaya through three generations of war, peace, Empire, and social and political change. Beautifully written and described, this is a book of great human and historical insight and truthfulness. Some of the history seems weirdly relevant to the present situation....
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 11 October 2001) |
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The Hungry Tide |
Into the harsh world of an archipelago of islands set between the sea and the Bengali plains come two outsiders: Kanai, a business man and Piya, Indian born but American raised; he to discover the secrets of his uncle's past, she to study cetaceans. Although it is ostensibly their story, it was the haunting tide country, its legends and its people whose lives they disrupt, which engaged my imagination and kept the pages turning.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 47 September 2008) |
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