1. What was it like to read about the life of Deeti (who figured especially prominently in RIVER OF SMOKE) from Kesri Singh’s perspective? Why are his beliefs about fulfillment in life and love so different from hers?

2. Is Kesri’s career in the Pacheesi a success story? What does his service to the native infantry reveal about power structures and British colonization?

3. What is the effect of Neel’s journal entries? How do they enhance Ghosh’s narrative voice?

4. Ghosh asks, “What exactly was it that had come into being between them [Zachary Reid and Catherine Burnham]? It was not love…nor was it only lust.” How would you answer that question? What do Zachary and Catherine need from each other?

5. Discuss Shireen’s discovery of Bahram and Chi-mei’s relationship, which was a central storyline in RIVER OF SMOKE. If you had been in Shireen’s situation, would you have been so eager to meet Freddie?

6. FLOOD OF FIREpresents a full spectrum of attitudes toward sex, from the stern medical advice of Dr. Allgood to Gulabi’s sultry troupe. How do the characters balance guilt and hedonism?

7. Read as armchair travel, what does the novel present in terms of landscape, cuisine, and the journey itself? How does the Hong Kong of recent headlines (since the 1997 return to Chinese control) compare to the early 19th-century version presented in the novel?

8. What makes Zadig an appropriate suitor for Shireen?

9. How do the Ibis trilogy characters, who represent a profusion of backgrounds, overcome or exploit their ancestry, gender and economic status? In particular, how do Neel and Paulette negotiate their multifaceted identities?

10. As FLOOD OF FIRE brought to life the East India Company’s exploitation of small farmers and the explosive tactics used to push British opium on China, what did you discover about the process of subjugation? What are the contemporary parallels to these global power struggles?

11. How did you react to Zachary’s hunger for wealth, with Mr. Burnham as his mentor, professing the noble cause of free trade and the blessed status of those “whom God chooses to be present at such moments in history”?

12. What was Commissioner Lin’s greatest disadvantage? Ultimately, who is to blame for Freddie’s addiction?

13. Were Paulette and Zachary simply the victims of miscommunication, or do their temperaments inevitably make their romance a struggle?

14. Throughout the Ibis trilogy, Ghosh writes of survivors and victims in dire straits both personal and global. In the closing scene, does fate or willpower appear to be the stronger force in this saga?