Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Foreign Policy, Literary Hub, and The Millions

Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family―the climax of a yearslong project.

When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to learn how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote about were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean but also by the precious commodity carr...