Ghosh’s tentacular history also embraces opium’s entanglement with furniture, architecture, gardens and its role in modern wars. His forensic analysis of opium-factory paintings is particularly fascinating. But it’s Ghosh’s big-picture thinking that has made his nonfiction so influential.

Sweeping.

Ghosh, among the finest novelists of Indian origin writing in the English language, is a social anthropologist by training.

Ghosh deftly uses opium as a lens to explore Indian and Chinese history and how the trade impacted Indo-Chinese relations. While the book is a vital companion piece to the Ibis trilogy it is also a stand-alone book in its own right..

Dramatic.

Insightful.