“In River of Smoke, a clipper ship—stuffed to the gills with
opium—groans its way from the poppy fields of India to the trading posts
of China in the mid-19th century, while a Dickensian cast of characters
clash, mashing their radically different dialects into an intoxicating
patois. Amitav Ghosh’s second installment of his Ibis trilogy opens a
vivid window onto a tumultuous period.” —REGAN SOLMO, Managing Editor
November 2011