Sea of Poppies: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 926
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0374174229
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780374174224
ASIN: 0374174229
Publication Date: October 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a freespirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races, and generations. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, the exotic backstreets of Canton. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive—a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
 My Favorite of 2008 January 6, 2009
I hesitated to read this novel. I looked at the glossary at the back, perused the pages, recognized all sorts of foreign words, and almost judged the book too quickly, thinking it pretentious and difficult. Suffice it to say, I loved the book. The plot was gripping, the characters were compelling, complex, and familiar, and the historical detail was highly informative. As for the foreign words? They work like a delicate spice, adding a brilliant complexity to the world Ghosh creates. Besides, just as the reader is confused at times by the dialects and idioms, so too are some of the characters. The word play made me smile, and, at times, laugh out loud. A lovely, rewarding, and important book!!!!!
An Epic Novel December 30, 2008
This is one of the most intriguing book I have ever read. Amitav has used "realistic linguistics" to describe many English words. What this means is that he used non-English local words to describe English ones. For example, Asian sea soldiers/sailors are `lascars', indentured labourers are `girmitiyas' and so on. Being an Indian, I had some advantage as many local Hindustani words are known to me. However, the author has used lot of local dialects which requires frequent trip to Chrestomathy(a section in back of book which explains favored few words).
Apart from this, author has used pidgin (simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common), Frenchified English and Indian English. Don't get discouraged by these linguistic variations. Once you start reading this book, it will take you on different ride.
The novel is set in period of Opium War between Britain and China (late 1830s). There are vast number of interesting characters which are introduces slowly and in very personal manner.
1. Deeti is a poor farmer (opium grower) living in a remote village on the bank of river Ganges. After her husband (a drug addict) dies, she decides to give up her life as sati(an old custom where wife burns alive with her husband on funeral pyre) to escape from her lascivious brother-in-law. During this process, she is rescued by a low-caste driver `Kalua', whom she had secretly liked and rescued once. Deeti and Kalua run away and get married secretly. With fate, they meet a man who agrees to take them to Mauritius as coolies (laborer) on Ibis. While on ship, she earns respect from fellow passengers and finds that she is pregnant from Kalua. Unfortunately, she gets recognized by Bhyro Singh, who is leader of police regiment on board and is her first husband's uncle. Bhyro Singh arranged her marriage to his nephew and in order to restore family honor, is determined to kill her. Due to circumstances on board, Bhyro Singh corners Deeti and you have to read what happens next.
2. Neel Ratan Halder is Raja of Rakshali who has lived his whole life in luxury. Due to his dead father's extravagant lifestyle, he finds himself under lot of debt. His business partner, Benjamin Burnham (owner of Ibis and an Opium trader) is after Neel's real estate and is willing to go to any length to secure it. He files case against Neel in court and with help of friendly British judge, manages to throw Neel into prison. His punishment is to live seven years in exile in Mauritius. While waiting in prison for his transportation, he meets half-Chinese/half-Parsi opium addict prisoner, Ah Fatt, who becomes his surrogate brother.
3. First generation Mulatto `Zachery Reid' (Black mother/White father) can be easily passed as White person. He started his journey on Ibis from Baltimore as ship's carpenter but soon progresses to become Second Mate. His black heritage is later identified by another character (Baboo Nob Kissin) and ship's first mate Jack Crowle.
4. Serang Ali is head of lascars who has fatherly affection for Zachery Reid and addresses him as Malum Zikri. His past has connections with Sea Pirates. When Zachery finds about this, Serang Ali plans to jump the ship in middle of their journey in Black Water.
5. Paulette Lambert is Daughter of a liberal French widower living in Calcutta. Inspite of being of French heritage, she has mastered Indian language Bangali and wears Sari (traditional Indian female dress). She was brought up by an Indian woman whose son Jodu is like her brother. After Paulette's father's death, she separates from Jodu and goes to live with Benjamin Burnham. While living in Benjamin's house, she is disgusted by his bizarre behavior during Biblical lessons. Once she learns that Benjamin is planning to get her married to his friend, she plans to escape to Mauritius. During one of the party in Benjamin's house, she meets Zachery and instantly likes him.
Jodu comes looking for her once his mother dies and now free of family responsibility, he tells Paulette that he is planning to join ship crew.
Paulette requests Zachery and Jodu to accommodate her on the ship but they refuse out of the concern for her. Thus, she plans to disguise herself and plans to board the ship while hiding from Zachery and Jodu.
6. Baboo Nob Kissin is accountant for Benjamin Burnham's firm and is a strange little religious man. He has a spiritual fantasy that his deceased female spiritual guide has occupied her body and has told her to go to Mauritius to make a temple there. He has suspicion that Zachery Reid is reincarnation of Lord Krishna and is always on the prowl to hear signs reinforcing his belief. He manages to secure a place on Ibis as a supercargo and later has a vision that Neel is his spiritual son.
Kismet (Fate) brings all these characters and others to Ibis (a former slave ship) and they are traveling from Calcutta (India) to Mareech (Mauritius) to escape their past life. Irrespective of caste, color and social status, all these characters become jahaj-bhais and jahaj-behans (ship brothers and sisters)
There are some sections in book which are gross and turns you inside out. The introduction of half-Chinese/half-Parsi prisoner, Kalua's degradation by village thakurs and Deeti's wedding night are particularly coarse.
The ending of this book is open and we are uncertain when happens to the characters. I am happy to know that the this book is only the first part of trilogy. I will anxiously wait for the next installment.
In short, Sea of Poppies is the first part of what promises to be the great trilogy. The author has clearly researched and has given specialist information to bring back the bygone era and vanished experiences.
"...it was this minuscule orb--at once bountiful and all-devouring, merciful and destructive, sustaining and vengeful." December 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In this amazingly rich work, Amitav Ghosh has created a fantastically entertaining and moving novel. He promises two more parts to complete this masterpiece, but this work alone has vaulted him into rare literary ethers. He has threaded a needle and woven together a terrific group of characters who originate from the banks of the Ganges to the cities of London and Paris to the port of Baltimore. In vivid detail, the lives of a bankrupt Raja, a widowed tribeswoman, an American "metif," a low caste giant, and many more come together on the decks of the former U.S. slave ship Ibis. They all are sailing across the Black Waters to Mauritius with a cargo of indentured laborers, two convicts, and a crew of "lascars" (Indian sailors and soldiers).
Uncompromising in its ingenious and sometimes puzzling use of language and its ubiquitous references to Eastern culture, "Sea of Poppies" takes place in 1838 during the inception of the opium war with China. There are many plot summaries already given on this site, but in the mode of iconic 19th-and early 20th-century novels, this story is deeply insightful and grandly drawn up and brings to mind, as other reviewers have said, parallels to Dumas, Tolstoy, Dickens, Melville, and Conrad. The author has provided hundreds of details for us and clearly has researched sailing ships, the opium trade, drug addiction, 19th-century India and China, and much more. What is also unique here is that the inner compass of this work points east, not west. In its veins runs the intoxicating manna called opium. It feeds the entire British Empire, enslaves the lives of Indian farmers, and reduces humans to trembling beasts. It is the whip that drives everyone and everything in this book forward.
Before this masterpiece becomes a movie (it's crying out for cinematic treatment), I urge you to read it. Like an opiate itself, it is addictive. You will savor it for quite some time and long for the next serving. Let's hope we see the next one soon.
 Exotic setting, exotic language! December 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like novels that illuminate history, and Sea of Poppies is set in early nineteenth century India, during the opium wars, when the only super power on earth was Great Britain. The characters include a self-righteous English robber-baron who owns a fleet of ships that take Indian opium to the unwilling addicts in China, and bring Chinese tea back to the British Isles. A brilliant native woman, Deeti, is rescued from death on a funeral pyre by the mostly taciturn but enormous Kalua. They float down the Ganges together, escaping from their relatives and neighbors who now consider them outcasts and out castes. Paulette Lambert, the daughter of a very modern French botanist father and his black colleague, is raised in Victorian fashion at the Burnham's palace in Calcutta, where her playmate is Jodu, a Bengali boy who ran away from home to become a sailor. Meanwhile, aboard the Ibis, one of the ships in the Burnham fleet, another teenager of mixed parentage, from Baltimore, has become the second officer, and is treated with deference, much to his embarassment. Finally, there is the Raja of Rashkali, who speaks several languages and is the most learned person in the book, who has been convicted of forgery by an English court, has lost his vast land holdings to Mr. Burnham, and is sentenced to be banished for seven years. He befriends a mixed English/Chinese man in prison, who also speaks English and was brought up in Canton. The two of them are brought onto the Ibis in chains for transport to their prison island.
Eventually, all these characters and more begin their voyage on the 'black water,' a voyage not just to a physical place on the earth, but to unknown and uncharted depths of self-discovery, inter-action, and cooperation. Love and jealousy, goodness and cruelty, understanding and bigotry accompany them.
In addition to the rich blend of cultures, places, and experiences, the language used by Amitav Ghosh mirrors the need for communication between people who really don't know each other's native tongues, and so the book has long passages of pidgin English, with Bengali, Hindusthani, the Indian (Laskar) sailor's imitation of English ship commands, all making a well-seasoned stew of words that is both illuminating, full of humor, and sometimes hard to understand. But the language draws the reader into the tale in a remarkable way that is calculated and brilliantly executed by Ghosh. Sea of Poppies is one of the most original, satisfying and virtuosic novels I've read in years!
 Sea of Poppies December 22, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I loved Amitov Gosh's book "The Hungry Tide" but he doesn't do as well with history.
Their is nothing I liked about this book.
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