River of Smoke
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 men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces? On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China.
3.4 out of 5 based on 8 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
528 |
| RRP |
£20.00 |
| Date of Publication |
June 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0719568985 |
| Publisher |
John Murray |
| |
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 men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces? On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China.
SEA OF POPPIES by Amitav Ghosh
Reviews
The Literary Review
John Thieme
"Some readers may feel swamped by the range of Ghosh's linguistic virtuosity, but for those who like to see history brought alive through the deployment of wave upon wave of plausible detail, River of Smoke should prove a marvellous read."
01/06/2011
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The Observer
Tim Adams
"On one level, the novel that arises from this formative geopolitics is a remarkable feat of research, bringing alive the hybrid customs of food and dress and the competing philosophies of the period with intimate precision; on another it is a subversive act of empathy, viewing a whole panorama of world history from the "wrong" end of the telescope. The real trick, though, is that it is also fabulously entertaining"
19/06/2011
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The Independent
James Urquhart
"The triumph of this satisfyingly long novel is Ghosh's underpinning of the vivid characters, brio and adventure of the Canton trade with the moral gravity of the foreign merchants' hypocrisy ... an enthralling yarn, swollen with minor stories but increasingly resonant in its moral clarity."
17/08/2011
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The Financial Times
Chris Patten
"Any good historical novel should teach the reader some history as well as sweeping him or her along with an unfolding narrative. Few do this as well as Amitav Ghosh ... Occasionally, Ghosh’s tale sags for a moment under the weight of his own scholarship. This is particularly true of the author’s somewhat self-indulgent use of the period pidgin, creole and patois slang that he has studied."
24/06/2011
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The Spectator
James Grande
"The linguistic exuberance and brilliant set pieces occasionally come at the cost of overall narrative development. The novel seems to stall in the long middle section, while the interspersed letters from an artist, Robin Chinnery, carrying a weak subplot about the search for a fabled golden camellia, are not as engaging or credible as the main story. However, River of Smoke succeeds through its compelling central character ... an enthralling hero, of Dickensian vitality and pathos."
02/07/2011
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The Guardian
Tessa Hadley
"The sheer accumulation of material ought to burst the seams of fictional form – and on occasion in River of Smoke, it does. The thread of the story can get lost amid the overwhelming interest of its context ... On the whole, though, the novel's strength lies in how thoroughly Ghosh fills out his research with his novelistic fantasy, seduced by each new situation that presents itself and each new character, so that at their best the scenes read with a sensual freshness as if they were happening now."
11/06/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
(Unknown)
"His taste for obscure words aside, Ghosh can be a rather ponderous storyteller. Far too much of the book is taken up by windy letters from an English painter. But there are some nice comic touches, mainly involving characters talking pidgin English, and moments of real lyricism. Best of all, Ghosh, through the depth of his research, lightly worn, has captured the many cross-currents of a fascinating historical period. "
16/06/2011
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The Sunday Times
Anthony Cummins
"Amitav Ghosh says in his acknowledgments that it would be “impossible” to cite all the preparatory reading he did for this book. It is hard not to think that his research has had a negative effect on the novel, which scarcely disguises its use of dialogue as a vehicle for telling us about the history of the opium trade ... At times I felt as if I had dipped into a textbook."
12/06/2011
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