This book is the final instalment in the Ibis Trilogy (comprising Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke as the first and second parts) by Amitav Ghosh. The story, travelling in the first two instalments, from opium farms in North and East India to the coast and hinterland of China, takes the readers through the tensions rising between imperial China and British India towards the middle of the 19th Century. The narrative follows the journey of a vast set of characters spanning from India to China through the Opium Wars that resulted in terrible defeat for China and the seizure of Hong Kong by Britain.
