Sea of Poppies

Great book and highly recommended. On board the Ibis, a motley crew of sailors, stowaways, coolies, and prisoners are making their way to Mauritius while travelling down the Hooghly. Old familial ties are washed away as they travel across the Indian Ocean, and they start to think of themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship brothers, who will create new lives for themselves on the isolated islands where they are being brought. Sea of Poppies, the first novel in the Ibis trilogy, is a beautifully colourful and profoundly human masterpiece that upholds Amitav Ghosh's reputation as a master storyteller.