Published in 2008 (and on the shortlist for that year's Man Booker Prize awards), Amitov Ghosh's Sea of Poppies is the first novel of his Ibis trilogy. In the postcolonial literary tradition, it follows a diverse cast of characters from and around the Indian subcontinent in the year 1838 — just before the first Opium War — as their lives are all drawn together aboard the schooner Ibis, an British ex-slave ship now transporting workers and prisoners from Calcutta to Mauritius. The principal cast includes Deeti, an Indian farmer's wife whose husband dies at the beginning of the novel; Zachary Reid, an affable octoroon (eighth-black) sailor from Baltimore who finds himself promoted to second mate of the Ibis and dealing among British Indian high society; the rajah Neel Rattan Halder, who in short order loses his fortune, estate, and status to the British and is made a prisoner; and Paulette, daughter of a deceased French rebel botanist who was raised along the native aspiring laskar, Jodu, and has been taken in by the wealthy British tradesman Benjamin Burnham... the same man who owns the Ibis and orchestrated Neel's trial.
The novel is especially notable for Ghosh's painstaking historical research and the sheer variety of languages and English dialects it incorporates into dialogue; even relatively minor characters tend to have distinct manners of speech.
The novel's story is continued in two sequels, River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015).
This book contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: The haughty Justice Kendalbushe to Paulette. This is one of the reasons she leaves Burnham's estate for the Maritius isles.
- Audience Surrogate: To American readers especially, Zachary Reid is this. He is relatively plain-spoken, and his variable position on the Ibis lets him ingratiate himself among the ship's crew and its British management. Also much like readers, he often has no idea what's been said in conversations... but is usually willing to ask for clarification, letting the audience learn through his eyes.
- The Big Guy: The ox-cart driver Kalua's impressive size draws remark from everyone he encounters, and he proves a skilled physical laborer. Most character also assume him to be Dumb Muscle, which is disproven fairly quickly in his first viewpoint section.
- Character Development:
- Deeti becomes more outspoken after she and Kalua flee their village together and join the Ibis as migrants.
- Neel's plight — including his loss of caste and imprisonment — sees him overcome his revulsion to dirt and his extremely selective eating habits, gain more of an interest in the lives of common people, and prove himself to be more resilient than ever he expected.
- The Charmer: Downplayed as we only see it in one case, but Jodu's flirting with the migrant girl Munia proves him surprisingly smooth with women (at least, Paulette is certainly surprised to hear it).
- Child by Rape: Several examples, unfortunately:
- Deeti's daughter Kabutri was actually fathered by her uncle, Deeti's brother-in-law. A strong draft from her husband's opium-pipe made Deeti essentially lose consciousness of the event.
- Zachary's mother was his father's slave whom he brought to a cabin in the woods to have his way with. She was freed after revealing to her master that she was pregnant, as Zachary's father did not want his son to be born a slave (which Zachary almost considers a Pet the Dog moment in-universe).
- Dumb Muscle: Subverted with Kalua, who's at first depicted as a simpleminded cart hauler but proves to be more perceptive as the story goes on. The presumption of his stupidity may also have as much to do with his low caste as his stature. He proves himself to be at least reasonably good at strategizing when he formulates and executes a plan to save Deeti from her sati pyre within a few minutes of learning she's to be burned.
- Ensemble Cast: The novel has no clear protagonist, but a rotation of four characters — Deeti, Zachary, Neel, Paulette — receives the most narrative focus; to a lesser extent, Jodu, Kalua, and Baboo Nob Kissin also receive their own focus sections.
- Going Native: Among British society in India, this idea is discussed and scorned; the pilot Mr Doughty even cautions Zachary against it in an early chapter. Arguably even inverted with Neel, a rajah whose excellent English-language education makes him better-spoken and better-versed in Western politics than characters like Mr. Burnham or Mr. Doughty... for which they hold him in even considerable disdain.
- Hanging Judge: Justice Kendalbrushe is a nasty example... at least when he's trying Indians in court. During Neel's forgery sentencing, he makes clear early on that he considers Neel guilty but still spends nearly four pages moralizing that it is his duty as a Britishman to bring the rule of law to "a society in its infancy". He even ignores the jurymen who had appealed to him in Neel's favor.
- Hidden Depths: Kalua likes doing mental arithmetic.
- Meaningful Name: All over the place. A few examples:
- Serang Ali calls Zachary "Zikri" — which means "the one who remembers".
- Two Names to Run Away from Really Fast: the Ibis captain's surname is Chillingsworth. His first mate is Crawle (pronounced more like "cruel" in a British accent). Neither are especially pleasant people.
- The sea pilot Mr. Doughty's name means "brave and persistent".
- Omniglot: Several characters count as multilingual, but Paulette in particular stands out in this respect. She has working knowledge of at least four languages, including French, English, Hindustani, and Bengali; she also knows plant names in Sanskrit and Latin.
- One-Drop Rule: Being an octoroon (one-eighth black, seven-eights white) in pre-Civil War America means that Zachary Reid is legally classified as black, thus barring him from social opportunities at home. His paperwork to join the Ibis also lists him as black. Purely by appearances, however, he can easily pass for white... which makes him invaluable in doing business with the British later on, as the Ibis' lascar crew cannot ingratiate themselves with racist white society due to their foreign appearances.
- Riches to Rags: The crux of Neel's arc early on; through conviction for forgery and subsequent loss of caste, he goes from a rajah (essentially a local monarch) to just another prisoner.
- Spirited Young Lady: Paulette, raised by a French botanist with progressive ideals for the time, she is considerably intelligent and scornful of notions that women have no place on the crew of a ship like the Ibis.
- Type Caste: As the novel begins in India, social caste is a very significant element — most Indian characters define themselves or are defined by caste roles and expectations, and significant obstacle in Deeti and Kalua's relationship is that she's of higher caste than him. One passage has Captain Chillingsworth compare this to the United States' racial hierarchy, as he justifies the persecution of inter-caste relationships on the basis that Americans would be just as harsh in punishing interracial ones.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Jodu's most remarked-upon trait is a scar through one eyebrow, giving him the appearance of having three eyebrows instead of two.
- Unusual Euphemism: Assuming Paulette's resistance to Kendalbushe's pursuit of her is due to a Teen Pregnancy, Mrs. Burnham asks Paulette if she has a "rootie in the choolah" — i.e. a bun in the oven.
