Amitav Ghosh: Smoke And Ashes [2025]

‘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