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Flood of Fire

Review

Flood of Fire

“A new age is dawning, you know --- the age of Free Trade --- and it’s men like you and I, self-made Free-Traders, who will be its heroes. If there’s been an exciting time for a venturesome white youth to seek his destiny in the East, then this is it.”

Acclaimed Indian writer Amitav Ghosh completes his magnum opus Ibis Trilogy with the recent publication of the final novel, FLOOD OF FIRE, a remarkable saga that depicts key historical events leading up to the first Opium War (1839-1842) --- from China’s attempts to block British India’s import of the drug to the British expeditionary forces’ planned military attacks of South China’s ports.

"Intricately plotted and tonally rich, FLOOD OF FIRE is an exceptional historical novel that invites close reading. Ghosh’s masterwork is a solemn meditation on colonial history, power, duty and sacrifice."

Bustling with activity, this sprawling novel illustrates grand swathes of physical territories --- from Calcutta and Singapore to the meandering tributaries of the Ganga and Pearl Rivers, from strategic maneuvers in naval battlefields to bedroom boudoirs. All of Ghosh’s protagonists are fully developed and wide-ranging, including the proud, sympathetic Kesri Singh, a 35-year-old veteran sepoy of the East India Company who worries about faltering staff morale; the renowned British merchant Benjamin Burnham (who passionately advocates for Free Trade) and his wife, Catherine Burnham, one of Calcutta’s leading hostesses and a prominent supporter of a number of “improving causes” (On the topic of poor whites in India, she remarks, “It is incumbent upon us to do what we can to prevent these unfortunate creatures from becoming a blight on the prestige of the ruling race”); Zachary Reid, the amorous and ambitious 21-year-old sailor craftsman from Baltimore; and the brave widow Shireen Modi, who boldly leaves India for Canton to recover her husband’s lost funds and locate his illegitimate son.

Throughout his novel, Ghosh sheds light on the impact of opium --- the substance that poured into the market “like a monsoon flood” and had a “magical power to turn human frailty into gold” --- on world history, countries and peoples. Following the drug’s production in the Indian town of Ghazipur, the fever-pitch auctions in Calcutta, the lives of individual British opium traders and Chinese-Indian addicts, Ghosh reminds us that opium is a “monopoly of British government. Opium pays for everything --- hotel, church, governor’s mansion, all are built on opium.”

Intricately plotted and tonally rich, FLOOD OF FIRE is an exceptional historical novel that invites close reading. Ghosh’s masterwork is a solemn meditation on colonial history, power, duty and sacrifice. Pointing to the potent legacies of death and destruction left in the wake of war, Ghosh asks, “What was the meaning of it? What was it for?”

Reviewed by Miriam Tuliao on September 25, 2015

Flood of Fire
by Amitav Ghosh

  • Publication Date: August 2, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Picador
  • ISBN-10: 1250094712
  • ISBN-13: 9781250094711