Description

A Washington Post Significant Fiction Guide for 2011The Ibis, packed to its gunwales with a freight of indentured servants, is in the hold of the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal; one of the tons flailing for success are Neel, the spoiled raja that has been convicted of embezzlement; Paulette, the German orphan masquerading as a deck hand; and Deeti, the widowed poppy gardener running her homeland with her fan, Kalua.The surprise also intends the clipper ship Anahita, moaning with the biggest consignment of opium actually to keep India for Canton. And the Redruth, a room dispatch, bears Ernest “Fitcher” Penrose, a horticulturist decided to find the invaluable gifts of China that are hidden in plain view: its crops that possess the capacity to recover, or enhance, or intoxicate. Where cultures conflict and occasionally blend: a tumultuous world unto itself all may meet in Canton’s Fanqui-city, or International Enclave. It's a powder keg expecting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars.Spectacular coincidences, surprising reversals of fortune, and sensitive love tales abound.