Amitav Ghosh - Sea of Poppies

Praise for Sea of Poppies

Bedazzling Breathtakingly detailed and compelling.

The Independent

The narrative rolls along to the rhythms of the sea, seasoned with salty language and bawdy badinage This is a deeply old-fashioned novel, unburdened by post-modern trickery and driven by plot devices that Robert Louis Stevenson would have loved: Grudges must be avenged, debts paid off, pasts hidden.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A rollicking yarn the sheer joy in old-fashioned storytelling radiates from the pages This novel can stand without embarrassment in the company of Melville, Conrad and Patrick OBrian.

Ottawa Citizen

Ghoshs best and most ambitious work Ghosh writes with impeccable control, and with a vivid and sometimes surprising imagination.

The New Yorker

Sea [of Poppies] is marvelous, its range and authority astonishing There is extraordinary tenderness, too Philosophically rich, exuberantly written, Sea of Poppies expands the mind and quickens the heart.

The Plain Dealer

Very nearly perfect Steeped in history and rich in incident and character Ghoshs research is deftly interwoven into every sentence and never calls attention to itself for its own sake, functioning rather as world-building and adding verisimilitude [Ghosh has a] tendency to write weighty, smart, complex novels [and] Sea of Poppies is no exception.

Edmonton Journal

[A] remarkably rich saga which has plenty of action and adventure la Dumas, but moments also of Tolstoyan penetrationand a drop or two of Dickensian sentiment.

The Observer (London)

India in the 1830s is wonderfully evokedthe smells, rituals and squalor Coarseness and violence, cruelty and fatalism, are relieved with flashes of emotion and kindness Profoundly moving.

The Times (London)

Sprawling and rather wonderful Beautifully made sentences and paragraphs buoy up ship, plot, characters and the setting itself with a natural ease and beauty.

San Francisco Chronicle

Ghosh turns the ship into something robustly, bawdily and indelibly real A plot of Dickensian intricacy.

The New York Times

A thoroughly readable romp of a novel, filled with excellent set pieces, comic digressions (especially its comedies of manners), love interest, subterfuge and betrayal. We are left thirsty for more.

New Statesman (UK)

A rip-snortin sounding tale of colonial misadventure and the opium wars.

Toronto Star

Rich and panoramic, [Sea of Poppies] sees this Indian author on masterly form A sprawling adventure with a cast of hundreds and numerous intricate stories encompassing poverty and riches, despair and hope, and the long-fingered reach of the opium trade.

The Economist (UK)

A storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott. Vogue

Ripping post-colonial yarn Ghosh spins a fine story with a quite irresistible flow, breathing exuberant life An absorbing vision.

The Guardian

Brilliant Ghosh is a wonderful literary writer Period Anglo-Indian pidgin and lascar jargon spices dialogue with a rich phonetic authenticity By the books stormy and precarious ending, most readers will clutch it like the ships rail awaiting, just like Ghoshs characters, the rest of the voyage to a destination unknown.

USA Today

Each scene is boldly drawn, but it is the sheer energy and verve of Amitav Ghoshs storytelling that binds this ambitious medley.

Daily Mail

Ghosh [is] a writer of uncommon talent who combines literary flair with a rare seriousness of purpose His descriptions bring a lost world to life, from the evocatively imagined opium factory, the intricacies of womens costumes and the lovingly enumerated fare on the opulent dining tables of the era, to the richly detailed descriptions of the Ibis and its journey.

The Washington Post Book World

[A] lush and evocative novel, filled with vivid details of life in 19th-century India. Ghoshs vibrant prose radiates compassion and empathy for his characters and ingeniously recreates the Anglo-Indian pidgin they would have spoken Ghoshs epic, ambitious vision will keep readers riveted.

Bookmarks magazine

Ambitious A sweeping opus Contains traces of Dickens and Twain and also recalls LucasGeorge Lucas that isand his Star Wars trilogy. Yes, Mr. Ghoshs book resembles less a modern novel than a cinematic epic; and this style complements a work of profound historical magnitude Ghoshs 19th-century world is worth savoring.

New York Observer

[A] majestic epic Ghosh masterfully weaves 1830s India and the calculations of British imperialism into the lives of an array of finely wrought characters Mesmerizing.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In vivid settings Ghosh unfurls tales of betrayal and tyranny, revelation and transformation, while reveling in the mischievous inventiveness of a bawdy polyglot lingo favored by sailors on Eastern seas. With intimations of Dickens and Melville, Ghoshs vital saga encompasses suspense and satire, perverse cruelty and profound kindness, and the countless ways humans conceal desire and fear behind arrogance and brutality.

Booklist

Ghosh orchestrates his polyphonic saga with a composers fine touch The density of settings is historically convincing, and the author pays close attention to variations in speech Planned as the first of a trilogy, this astonishing, mesmerizing launch will be hard to top.

Kirkus Reviews

A nautical yarn, brimming with enough focsles and jibs and fife rails to satisfy the salty cravings of the Patrick OBrian crowd Sea of Poppies is drunk on language or, rather, on two languages The two lingoes combine into a Joycean cacophony that testifies to the fecund energy of English at its fringes and borders [A] jolly outing.

Salon

Think The Odyssey, Treasure Island and Moby Dick. You can now add to this list Sea of Poppies [A] multivalent, almost chaotic triumph His characters know how to maneuver a boat, and he knows how to direct them on the page.

Time Out New York

PENGUIN CANADA

SEA OF POPPIES

AMITAV GHOSH is the internationally bestselling author of many works of fiction and non-fiction, including the novel The Glass Palace, and the recipient of numerous prizes and awards. He divides his time among Kolkata and Goa, India, and Brooklyn, New York.

ALSO BY AMITAV GHOSH

The Hungry Tide

Incendiary Circumstances

The Glass Palace

The Calcutta Chromosome

In an Antique Land

The Shadow Lines

The Circle of Reason

PENGUIN CANADA

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published in Viking Canada hardcover by Penguin Group (Canada),