Borders mean little to the 67-year-old who was born in Calcutta raised in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; studied, in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria; and now lives in New York with his wife, writer Deborah Baker.

Ghosh’s first novel, The Circle of reason (1986), was set in India, northern Africa and Middle East. His second, The Shadow Lines, won (1988), SahityaAkademi Award and has featured on college syllabus..

He has written historical novels (The Glass Palace) and Medical thriller ( The Calcutta Chromosome); fiction and non-fictions set in vanishing island ravaged first by colonialism and now by the climate crisis (The Hungry Tide in 2004), and the Nutmeg’s Curse in 2021.

Between those two, he released his Ibis Trilogy works of historical fiction that trace the lead-up to the First Opium war of 1839 -1842. It was a war waged by England when China, concerned by the impact that opium was having on its population, tried to ban the drug in the country.

In Smokes and Ashes, released on July 15, Ghosh returns to the opium poppy, in a work of non-fiction that is part of memoir and part travelogue, to explore how this one plant has contributed to what he refers to as “the current unmaking of our world”..The story, of theopiumpoppy is above all, a story about uman folly and fragility, he says.

In an interview Amitav was asked – What is it about this plant that has kept you hooked for over 15 years?

He said In the course of writing the Ibis trilogy (released between 2008 and 2012), he realized that Papaver somniferum has played a hugely important part in human history—especially the history of colonial Asia- yet the story goes largely unnoticed even though all the relevant facts are easily accessible.

For instance, the fact that the late—19th century and opium movement played in the genesis of Indian nationalism is rarely mentioned in history books.Itbhasan important presence in almostvery major conflict currently underway in theworld, no matter whether in Mexico, Myanmar or Manipur in India.

His last book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, is a book of non-fiction that focuses on the Banda Island in Indonesia and the environmental impact of colonization there. Opium’s history is also deeply rooted in colonialism.

Ghosh says that the two narratives are so closely connected that they are almost the same story. Both The Nutmeg’s curse and Smoke and Ashes deal with the role that certain botanical entities have played in enabling and empowering colonial exploitation and extractives. Both stories throw light on the genesis of an economic system that is utterly indifferent to its catastrophic long-term impacts on society and the environment. (IPA Service)