How long does it take to read River of Smoke?
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh takes about 9 hours 34 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Part of Ibis trilogy
Previous: Sea of Poppies Next: Flood of Fire
About 9 hours 34 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2011. 522 pages, about 143,550 words.
20 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 15 hours 57 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 9 hours 34 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 59 minutes |
The page count is the median across 20 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces? On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower have thrown together. All struggle to cope with their losses - and for some, unimaginable freedoms - in the alleys and crowded waterways of 19th century Canton.
Subjects: Opium trade, Cyclones, Sailors, Social classes, Voyages and travels, Schooners
