16 Books to Curl Up With This Fall

The first two volumes of Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy brought to life the years leading up to the first Opium War, the conflict between Britain and China over the opium trade. In his final installment, Flood of Fire, the Hind, a British Indian vessel, sails east to China in 1840 as part of that military escalation, carrying a diverse group of passengers: a destitute American sailor, an ambivalent Indian soldier, a steely widow. Amid the clash of cultures, Ghosh imbues his narrative with historical sweep and the lavish sights and sounds of Southern Asia, beautifully dramatizing the rise of Hong Kong and the strained legacy of European colonialism.