Smoke and Ashes

"Smoke and Ashes" er en historisk thriller skrevet af Abir Mukherjee, og den foregår i Indien i 1921. Her følger vi efterforskeren Sam Wyndham, der kæmper med en voldsom afhængighed af opium. Sam er nødt til at holde sin afhængighed hemmelig, hvis han vil beholde sit job. Situationen bliver af denne grund meget kompliceret, da han snubler over et lig i en opiumhule. Snart opdager han et andet lig med lignende skader, og han bliver derfor overbevist om, at der er en sindsforvirret morder på spil. Abir Mukherjee har med "Smoke and Ashes" skabt et spændende mordmysterium midt i 1920'ernes Calcutta. Det er den tredje bog i serien om Sam Wyndham, der hjemsøges af fortidens spøgelser.

"Smoke and Ashes" er en historisk thriller skrevet af Abir Mukherjee, og den foregår i Indien i 1921. Her følger vi efterforskeren Sam Wyndham, der kæmper med en voldsom afhængighed af opium. Sam er nødt til at holde sin afhængighed hemmelig, hvis han vil beholde sit job. Situationen bliver af denne grund meget kompliceret, da han snubler over et lig i en opiumhule. Snart opdager han et andet lig med lignende skader, og han bliver derfor overbevist om, at der er en sindsforvirret morder på spil. Abir Mukherjee har med "Smoke and Ashes" skabt et spændende mordmysterium midt i 1920'ernes Calcutta. Det er den tredje bog i serien om Sam Wyndham, der hjemsøges af fortidens spøgelser.

'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

'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

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDHILL HISTORY PRIZE 'An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world' TLS 'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday Telegraph 'A history of the opium poppy, which probes how the drug trade has shaped free-market capitalism and globalisation. The plant may look innocuous, but its story is one of profits and power' Economist , Book of the Year When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story. Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions (from the Astors and Coolidges to the Ivy League), and of contemporary globalism itself. Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Amitav Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDHILL HISTORY PRIZE 'An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world' TLS 'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday Telegraph 'A history of the opium poppy, which probes how the drug trade has shaped free-market capitalism and globalisation. The plant may look innocuous, but its story is one of profits and power' Economist , Book of the Year When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story. Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions (from the Astors and Coolidges to the Ivy League), and of contemporary globalism itself. Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Amitav Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.