This is a masterpiece, but I recommend it with some cautions. The setting is India, 1838, the opium trade to China is at risk. But this is only peripherally about those things; it is about individuals, or more correctly about individuals' transformations.Note to perspective readers: the dialogue was peppered with Bengali, Hindi, and British 1800's sailor's pidgin. There's a purported glossary at the back of the book which I found painful. I did just fine following things without using the glossary, but decoding some of the dialogue might bug some folks.
