Smoke And Ashes

'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

An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world TLS
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 Times
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 Sunday Telegraph
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 Washington Post
Globe-trotting and history-spanning . . . Experimental . . . ambitious . . . a literary medley . . . traces the story of the opium trade from past to present. Standard
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 Financial Times
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 Glamour
An ambitious work of nonfiction documenting the devastating effects of a single commodity - the narcotic poppy - from the past to the present Guardian
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 The Economist
What sets Smoke and Ashes apart is how Ghosh brings the past in conversation with the present New Humanist
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. Financial Times

Amitav Ghosh is the author of the bestselling Ibis trilogy, comprised of Sea of Poppies (short-listed for the 2008 Man Booker Prize), River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. His other novels include The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Medicis etranger, and The Glass Palace. He is the author of many works of nonfiction, including The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable and The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. He holds two lifetime achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2015, he was named as a finalist of the Man Booker International Prize. In 2018, Ghosh became the first English-language writer to receive the Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honor, and in 2024 he was awarded the Laureate Erasmus Prize. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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