From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)

Amitav Ghosh

Start date: June 15, 2017

Finish date: July 15, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads Discussions

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 404 topics — 3,825 comments total

Group Reads Discussions

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* Links to Group Read Discussions
By Diane , Armchair Tour Guide · 3 posts · 1373 views

last updated Jan 18, 2013 07:12PM

Thank you for the Amazing Reviews!
By Bruce · 1 post · 13 views

last updated May 14, 2025 08:13AM

showing 10 of 24 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Mar 07, 2011 Kay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, historical-fict, fiction, world-lit, modern-fiction, india, commodity_history

"The truth is, sir, that men do what their power permits them to do. We are no different from the Pharaohs or the Mongols: the difference is only that when we kill people we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause. It is this pretence of virtue, I promise you, that will never be forgiven by history."

Sea of Poppies wrestles with the complex moral questions of the opium trade in an unexpectedly emphathetic way. There are the producers, users, and traffickers, all with complex mo ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2011 Sam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, 1-contemp-literary, setting-india, setting-asia-south, read-2004-2011, authors-asian-descent-outside-asia

I love this book, and long after having finished reading it, the characters and their stories have stayed with me. The novel transfers you to the Bay of Bengal and India, in the period right before the Opium Wars, introducing you to a whole host of memorable characters and following them through the circumstances that will eventually bring them together. My favorites were the stories of the odious drug-addicted zarminder, Neel Rattan Halder, as well as those of Deeti and the low-caste Kalua. Som ...more

Like · see review

Mar 23, 2010 Kara rated it it was ok

In the end the story was good, but this was a book I had to force at times. An interesting view of history via India, England-China trading, and the expanding global economy via the 19th century.

Like · see review