Each lingers like a delicacy of fish that leaves an indelible mark on the palate, prompting a craving for more. “Well, as is made clear in the rest of the book, the narrator is very fixated on these issues. So, of course, he’s thinking about them,” says Ghosh, sitting in a brightly lit room overlooking the Race Course. Was he equally conscious while writing the Ibis trilogy — Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015)? It is possible to be entirely ordinary, outside the novel’s metaphysical realm, and still bring about transformation that seems impossible.

Source: The Telegraph January 25, 2026 05:17 UTC