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Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh – by Nimandra Gunasekera Source:Brisbane Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – May 2022 Sea of Poppies is the first volume of the epic Ibis Trilogy by renowned Indian author, Amitav Ghosh. The story begins in 1838, on the eve of the first Opium War and takes the reader on a tour de force of Opium and Empire in the 19th century. Set primarily aboard The Ibis, a British ex-slave ship now transporting workers and prisoners from Calcutta to Mauritius; the story revolves around a diverse and unlikely group of people. A poppy grower fleeing her northern Bihari village following the death of her husband, a mixed-race American seafarer and Freedman from Baltimore, an unscrupulous English businessman and Evangelist trading in opium, an imprisoned Maha Raja, an Untouchable on the run, a ParsiChinese Opium addict, a French Botanist escaping an arranged marriage, a Lascar and ...