Sea of Poppies facts for kids
First edition (India)
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| Author | Amitav Ghosh |
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| Country | India |
| Language | English |
| Series | Ibis trilogy |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press (India) |
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Publication date
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14 October 2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 528 |
| ISBN | 978-0-374-17422-4 |
| OCLC | 216941700 |
| 823/.914 22 | |
| LC Class | PR9499.3.G536 S43 2008 |
| Followed by | River of Smoke |
Sea of Poppies (2008) is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. It is the first volume of the Ibis trilogy. In the words of Rajnish Mishra, "the Ibis trilogy is Ghosh's most vehement indictment of the source of imperialism and colonialism". The second volume is River of Smoke.
The story is set prior to the First Opium War, on the banks of the holy river Ganges and in Calcutta. The author compares the Ganges to the Nile, the lifeline of the Egyptian civilization, attributing the provenance and growth of these civilizations to these selfless, ever-flowing bodies. He portrays the characters as poppy seeds emanating in large numbers from the field to form a sea, where every single seed is uncertain about its future.
Awards
Sea of Poppies won the 2008 Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. It won the 2008 British Book Design and Production Award. Sea of Poppies also won the Indiaplaza Golden Quill Award for best novel and Indiaplaza Golden Quill Popular Vote Award in 2009. It also received the prestigious Tagore Literature Award, awarded by Sahitya Akademi in 2012.
