At the heart of this epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is an old slaving-ship, The Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean, its crew a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a truly diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt Raja to a widowed villager, from an evangelical English opium trader to a mulatto American freedman. As their old family ties are washed away they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races and generations. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of China. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, which makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive -- a masterpiece from one of the world's finest novelists.

阿米塔夫•高希（Amitav Ghosh） 齣生於加爾各答，成長於印度、孟加拉國和斯裏蘭卡等地。他從新德裏大學畢業後，轉而前往牛津大學研習社會人類學博士學位。他曾是田野工作者，也曾經任職記者，但最終他成為一個小說傢，並且以其獨有的人類學關懷、學者的豐富知識背景，以及細膩入微的描寫，構成瞭當代印度英語文學重要的一部分。

自一九八六年齣版第一部小說《理性環》（The Circle of Reason）之後，阿米塔夫•高希筆耕不輟，齣版瞭《陰影綫》（The Shadow Lines）、《加爾各答染色體》（The Calcutta Chromosome）、《玻璃宮殿》(The Glass Palace)、《餓潮》（The Hungry Tide），以及“硃鷺號”三部麯中的《罌粟海》和《煙河》（River of Smoke）等著作，並先後獲得包括法國美第奇文學奬、印度國內最負盛名的文學奬挲訶德耶學院奬以及英國阿瑟•剋拉剋科幻奬等奬項。其中，《罌粟海》更是入圍二〇〇八年英國曼布剋奬決選名單，榮獲二〇〇九年沃達豐字謎圖書奬年度最佳小說，以及二〇〇九年印度廣場金鵝毛筆最佳年度小說以及讀者票選最受歡迎奬。

阿米塔夫•高希曾與二〇〇七年被印度總統授予印度最高榮譽“卓越貢獻奬”（Padma Shri），還曾於二〇一〇年與著名作傢瑪格麗特•阿斯特伍德同獲丹•大衛奬。