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Sea of Poppies (Ibis Trilogy, #1)

Amitav Ghosh

Start date: June 15, 2017

Finish date: July 15, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads Discussions

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What Members Thought

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

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

"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

Dec 07, 2008 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, india

Big themes and a huge cast, but engaging and charming once you adjust to Ghosh's use of the great language mashup of colonial India. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2011 Sam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1-contemp-literary, setting-india, setting-asia-south, read-2004-2011, reviewed, 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

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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.

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