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 ) |
