‘A bracing new history of the global opium trade . . . Ghosh’s tentacular history embraces opium’s entanglement with furniture, architecture, gardens and its role in modern wars . . . But it’s Ghosh’s big-picture thinking that has made his nonfiction so influential . . . A huge achievement’ The New York Times Book Review
From the nineteenth century the British reaped huge profits by exporting vast quantities of opium from India, waged wars to defend its access to markets, and created a devastating addiction crisis in China. A sweeping story of greed and power, Smoke and Ashes reveals how opium created the wealth of modern cities like Mumbai, Singapore and Shanghai, as well as many of America’s most powerful families and institutions, and is a part of Ghosh’s personal history.
‘Ghosh triumphs in laying out the shame of the British Empire’s opium trade for all to see’ Financial Times
‘This gave me a deeper chill than any TV series about the opioid crisis. . . The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Superlative . . . synthesise[s] a wealth of research with remarkable intellectual clarity’ The Times
‘Expansive and thoughtful’ Peter Frankopan, The Spectator
From the nineteenth century the British reaped huge profits by exporting vast quantities of opium from India, waged wars to defend its access to markets, and created a devastating addiction crisis in China. A sweeping story of greed and power, Smoke and Ashes reveals how opium created the wealth of modern cities like Mumbai, Singapore and Shanghai, as well as many of America’s most powerful families and institutions, and is a part of Ghosh’s personal history.
‘Ghosh triumphs in laying out the shame of the British Empire’s opium trade for all to see’ Financial Times
‘This gave me a deeper chill than any TV series about the opioid crisis. . . The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Superlative . . . synthesise[s] a wealth of research with remarkable intellectual clarity’ The Times
‘Expansive and thoughtful’ Peter Frankopan, The Spectator
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Reviews
A sweeping, and personal, account of the immense effect the opium trade has had on world history and how it continues to impact our lives today.
Ghosh has reinvented himself as a superlative commodity historian. In his new role, he has surpassed many seasoned historians in his ability to synthesise a wealth of research with remarkable intellectual clarity and suggestive simplicity . . . There's a quietly subversive element to Smoke and Ashes for which Ghosh deserves to be commended
The book gave me a deeper chill than any of the TV series about the opioid crisis I had viewed before reading it . . . The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb, and there are splashes of personal back story that underscore the sincerity of the author's arguments
A riveting new history of opium, a lucrative and destructive flower . . . Amitav Ghosh's sweeping, forcefully written Smoke and Ashes covers centuries in the life of the plant
Globe-trotting and history-spanning . . . Experimental . . . ambitious . . . a literary medley . . . traces the story of the opium trade from past to present.
A skilled storyteller, Ghosh triumphs in laying out the shame of the British empire's opium trade for all to see . . . [Smoke and Ashes is] a catalogue of colonial rapaciousness
A unique blend of memoir, travel diary and sweeping historical account of one of the most precious and devastating commodities: opium . . . it reads like a page turning thriller at points. Taking Opium as the central strand, covering Britain, India and China, themes of power, politics, large corporations and familial dynasties, the impact of colonialism and the catastrophe of the global drug trade
An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world
An ambitious work of nonfiction documenting the devastating effects of a single commodity - the narcotic poppy - from the past to the present
A gripping, true tale of profits, power and powerlessness wrought by drugs . . . the history of the opium trade helps explain the modern world . . . an elegant history . . . [Ghosh] tells his intricate story with verve
What sets Smoke and Ashes apart is how Ghosh brings the past in conversation with the present