July/August (Virtual) Book Club
Event Details
04:00PM - 05:30PM
The next selection for our virtual book club meeting is Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, which was shorlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008. At the heart of this vibrant saga is an immense ship, the Ibis. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors, stowaways, indentured servants and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship brothers.
The vast sweep of this historical adventure embraces the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the crowded backstreets of Canton. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive – a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists. "Such is the power of Ghosh's precise, understated prose that one occasionally wishes to turn the pages three at a time, eager to find out where Ghosh's tale is headed." - The Boston Globe
Look Who's Coming
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Sathya Hanagud
PhD '63 -
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Sally Abrams Dean
MA '71 -
Sophie Kim
'16 -
Holly Jackson
MA '71, PhD '75
