River of Smoke Book Cover

River of Smoke


A Historical Fiction Novel


Book 2 of the The Ibis Trilogy Series


Subgenres:

  • Maritime Historical Fiction,
  • Colonial India,
  • China
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This book is for you if you're into...

  • Ships colliding in storms and high-stakes trade
  • Botanists chasing rare plants through 19th-century China
  • Historical fiction set on the brink of the Opium Wars
Publisher Description

In Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, the Ibis began its treacherous journey across the Indian Ocean, bound for the cane fields of Mauritius with a cargo of indentured servants.

Now, in River of Smoke, the former slave ship flounders in the Bay of Bengal, caught in the midst of a deadly cyclone. The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. Meanwhile, the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries horticulturists determined to track down the priceless botanical treasures of China.

All will converge in Canton's Fanqui-town, or Foreign Enclave, a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars. A spectacular adventure, but also a bold indictment of global avarice, River of Smoke is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance.

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