RIVER OF SMOKE
Amitav Ghosh
John Murray, June 2011, RRP $27.95
The second in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, River of Smoke first takes up some 40 or 50 years after the events of Sea of Poppies, to reveal the ultimate fate of several of the characters. Since the end of the last book left things up in the air*, this choice threw me a bit when I started it. Perhaps I have a tendency to become complacent when reading certain things, so am particularly confused when shown an unexpected curve ball. I wondered if, perhaps, this second book took place entirely at this juncture. Fortunately for my state of mind, the novel does quickly return to the 1830s and the continuing development of the first Opium War.