Smoke & Ashes

is a 2023 non-fiction book by acclaimed Indian author [Amitav Ghosh](wikipedia.org Ghosh) that explores the profound and hidden impact of the global opium trade on modern history, capitalism, and colonialism. [1, 2]

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta, and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; he studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria. He is the author of several acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction including The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, the Ibis Trilogy (comprising the novels Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire), Gun Island, The Great Derangement, The Nutmegs Curse, Jungle Nama and The Living Mountain. Amitav Ghoshs work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He has been awarded and felicitated across the world. In 2019 Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the past decade. The same year, the Jnanpith Award, Indias highest literary honour, was conferred on him: he was the first English-language writer to receive it. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Erasmus Prize for his writings on the planetary crisis and climate change.

Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories is a 2023 non-fiction book by Amitav Ghosh that blends memoir, travel writing, and economic history to trace how the global opium trade shaped the modern world.