How long does it take to read Sea of Poppies?
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh takes about 9 hours 57 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
Part of Ibis trilogy
Next: River of Smoke
About 9 hours 57 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2005. 543 pages, about 149,325 words.
20 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 16 hours 36 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 9 hours 57 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 6 hours 13 minutes |
The page count is the median across 26 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slave ship The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its crew a motley array of sailors, stowaways, and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, the ship boasts a diverse cast of Indians, coolies, and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed village woman, from a mulatto American to an evangelical opium trader. As their family ties wash away, they come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers, and an unlikely dynasty is born. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the back streets of China. But it is the panorama of sharply drawn characters that brings Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive. The first in a trilogy, this is a masterpiece by a world-class novelist.
Subjects: Opium trade, History, Sailors, Travelers, Fiction, Voyages and travels
