A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2008A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2008A Washington Post Best Book of 2008An Economist Best Book of 2008A New York Best Book of 2008A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of 2008A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2008Shortlisted for the Man Booker PrizeAt the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a freespirited French orphan.
