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The Opium Clerk
Hiran is born in 1857—the year of the Mutiny and the year his father dies. Brought to Calcutta by his widowed mother, he has few talents apart from an uncanny ability to read a man’s lies in his palm. When luck gets him a job at an auction house, Hiran finds himself embroiled in a mysterious trade and in the affairs of his nefarious superior, Mr. Jonathan Crabbe, and his opium-addicted wife.
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
16 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Kunal Basu
21 books57 followersKunal basu was born in Calcutta. Raised by unorthodox parents, both litterateurs and political activists, he developed an early love for the arts: painting, acting and writing.
Since 2001, he has published four novels, a collection of short stories, written a few screen plays and (mostly unpublished) poetry.
Since 2001, he has published four novels, a collection of short stories, written a few screen plays and (mostly unpublished) poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 22, 2023
This novel is set against the opium trade between India and China during the nineteenth century. During that time, British merchants were pushing to get at the valuable markets in China where there was a strong demand for their product. It follows the story of Hiranyagabha Chakraboti (Hiran) born in 1857 , whose father died during a mutiny against the British. Hiran, only twenty at the time, needed to get work to support his mother. He has little to offer, only a a mission school education and a talent that appeared the night his father died: the ability to read palms and forecast the future.
A little luck helps him obtain a job as a clerk at the Calcutta’s Auction House, where he learns the product being traded is opium, referred to as “mud”. He works hard and becomes a protégé of the deputy supervisor, a man named Jonathan Crabbe. Over time the two develop a close relationship and Hiran is soon involved in Crabbe’s numerous dark dealings, becoming an unwitting pawn in the hands of his supervisor. Crabbe asks Hiran to find a baby for his sad, drug addicted wife Lilian, and Hiran does his bidding.
They travel to China where Hiran becomes caught up in the siege of Canton, in the middle of events he cannot control and barely escapes with his life. When they travel back to Calcutta, Crabbe is confronted with his fraudulent accounting methods and he and his wife are sent back to England in disgrace, leaving behind their adopted son.
Suddenly Hiran is a father. He raises his son Douglas in the opium trade and as the boy grows older, he meets and falls in love with a girl from a local school. When she becomes pregnant, they are forced to leave for South East Asia where he continues to work in the opium trade.
The narrative takes readers into the dark recesses of colonial history. It describes how British officials lived the high life in a country they controlled while the natives lived in squalor in the city’s filthy alleyways. It allows readers to see the opium trade through the eyes of Hiran, the characters who worked and managed the trade and the criminal markets that pushed their sticky, sweet, addictive product.
The novel, published in 2001, was praised by some for Basu’s lush poetic descriptions of Calcutta and its depiction of the dark colonial underworld of the time. It is not a linear narrative and is difficult to follow, filled with Indian English slang, confusing cultural and religious references, dreams, myths, legends, flashbacks and nuggets of wisdom. It was frustrating to try and decipher.
Not every book connects with every reader. I was intrigued by the subject matter but failed to connect with Basu’s unique style of writing and cannot say I would recommend this book to others.
A little luck helps him obtain a job as a clerk at the Calcutta’s Auction House, where he learns the product being traded is opium, referred to as “mud”. He works hard and becomes a protégé of the deputy supervisor, a man named Jonathan Crabbe. Over time the two develop a close relationship and Hiran is soon involved in Crabbe’s numerous dark dealings, becoming an unwitting pawn in the hands of his supervisor. Crabbe asks Hiran to find a baby for his sad, drug addicted wife Lilian, and Hiran does his bidding.
They travel to China where Hiran becomes caught up in the siege of Canton, in the middle of events he cannot control and barely escapes with his life. When they travel back to Calcutta, Crabbe is confronted with his fraudulent accounting methods and he and his wife are sent back to England in disgrace, leaving behind their adopted son.
Suddenly Hiran is a father. He raises his son Douglas in the opium trade and as the boy grows older, he meets and falls in love with a girl from a local school. When she becomes pregnant, they are forced to leave for South East Asia where he continues to work in the opium trade.
The narrative takes readers into the dark recesses of colonial history. It describes how British officials lived the high life in a country they controlled while the natives lived in squalor in the city’s filthy alleyways. It allows readers to see the opium trade through the eyes of Hiran, the characters who worked and managed the trade and the criminal markets that pushed their sticky, sweet, addictive product.
The novel, published in 2001, was praised by some for Basu’s lush poetic descriptions of Calcutta and its depiction of the dark colonial underworld of the time. It is not a linear narrative and is difficult to follow, filled with Indian English slang, confusing cultural and religious references, dreams, myths, legends, flashbacks and nuggets of wisdom. It was frustrating to try and decipher.
Not every book connects with every reader. I was intrigued by the subject matter but failed to connect with Basu’s unique style of writing and cannot say I would recommend this book to others.
May 28, 2015
A potentially fascinating story of the Opium trade in the British controlled Empire and that of the unwitting Hiran who gets caught up in it while performing duties at the 'Auction House'. However, the frustratingly languorous prose is almost sleep inducing at times and it seemed the author may have written it while under an Opium induced haze himself. Yes, there are some poetically great descriptions here and there, but as a novel it completely failed to give me a sense of place or urgency in the story and characters. A pity, since the subject held so much of promise.
April 28, 2020
This novel takes place from the late 1800s to the first part of the 1900s and includes the time of the opium wars. We follow the life of an opium clerk who is asked to find a child that can be adopted by a British man who is his supervisor at the auction house. Finding's the child greatly changes Hiran's life, something he should have foreseen given his ability to read palms. The novel includes many characters and I found the book to resemble magical realism, a genre that I do not care for. Still the story is interesting although the hold of opium on many countries and their peoples (India, China, Sarawak and others) creates a rather ugly picture.
November 22, 2013
The book is based during the era when the flourishing opium trade, carried on by the Britishers from India with China was coming to an end.
The book is about a Bengali Brahmin boy, Hiranyagarbha or Hiran who has lost his father, joins as a clerk in the opium exporting office. One of his friends Vinny is an offspring of a British officer and a Vietnamese lady. Vinny introduces him to the politics that dominate the Opium export office. He is asked to teach Sanskrit texts to the British Manager, Mr. Crabbe, to whom he reports.
During the course of these interactions, he has several interactions with the lady of the house, who is addicted to opium. He is sometimes joined during these interactions with the white man and the lady by a Parsee who also works at the opium export office.
One day Mr. Crabbe makes a strange request to Hiran asking him for a child that he could adopt. Hiran manages to get one for his manager. Soon he is asked to Canton. He sets sail for Canton. Vinny joins him. Vinny is hoping to get married to a Vietnamese girl identified for him by his mother.
In Canton the atmosphere is antagonistic towards the opium traders with only local smugglers interested in getting the opium to mainland China. Hiran manages to thrive in this atmosphere, thanks the credentials established for him by Mr. Crabbe. He manages to survive despite all odds and returns back with Mr. Crabbe to India.
Back in India it is found out that Mr. Crabbe has been amassing large sums of money by under reporting the export details. He is sent back to England. When he goes back he leaves the adopted child with Hiran. The society does not accept this fact easily and his mother finds it very difficult to accept the situation.
Soon the boy grows up and as per somebody's suggestion he is inducted into the opium office by Hiran. In the office, thanks to his colour, he is treated as a white man. The boy is accused of making a local girl pregnant and he is forced to leave for South East Asia. There too he finds a job in an opium export office. He settles down with a local kid as his attendant. He meets his boss's sister in a camp for lepers, run by an Indian priest and falls in love with her. They have a child, but they lose the child to illness and they emigrate to Canada.
The book ends there. Did not enjoy the book much.
The book is about a Bengali Brahmin boy, Hiranyagarbha or Hiran who has lost his father, joins as a clerk in the opium exporting office. One of his friends Vinny is an offspring of a British officer and a Vietnamese lady. Vinny introduces him to the politics that dominate the Opium export office. He is asked to teach Sanskrit texts to the British Manager, Mr. Crabbe, to whom he reports.
During the course of these interactions, he has several interactions with the lady of the house, who is addicted to opium. He is sometimes joined during these interactions with the white man and the lady by a Parsee who also works at the opium export office.
One day Mr. Crabbe makes a strange request to Hiran asking him for a child that he could adopt. Hiran manages to get one for his manager. Soon he is asked to Canton. He sets sail for Canton. Vinny joins him. Vinny is hoping to get married to a Vietnamese girl identified for him by his mother.
In Canton the atmosphere is antagonistic towards the opium traders with only local smugglers interested in getting the opium to mainland China. Hiran manages to thrive in this atmosphere, thanks the credentials established for him by Mr. Crabbe. He manages to survive despite all odds and returns back with Mr. Crabbe to India.
Back in India it is found out that Mr. Crabbe has been amassing large sums of money by under reporting the export details. He is sent back to England. When he goes back he leaves the adopted child with Hiran. The society does not accept this fact easily and his mother finds it very difficult to accept the situation.
Soon the boy grows up and as per somebody's suggestion he is inducted into the opium office by Hiran. In the office, thanks to his colour, he is treated as a white man. The boy is accused of making a local girl pregnant and he is forced to leave for South East Asia. There too he finds a job in an opium export office. He settles down with a local kid as his attendant. He meets his boss's sister in a camp for lepers, run by an Indian priest and falls in love with her. They have a child, but they lose the child to illness and they emigrate to Canada.
The book ends there. Did not enjoy the book much.
March 6, 2014
This book was incredibly difficult to follow, and even more difficult to get into. It was like a dream sequence with random pacing in the passage of time, confusing flashbacks/forwards, and a lack of a cohesive plot. There was some history I knew nothing about (knowing little to nothing about India) and many words that I didn't know although they ended up being used frequently due to the locations of the story. I'm not sure I would recommend this to anyone. I don't know if it was translated, but perhaps if it was there was a great deal lost in translation.
March 19, 2016
This is definitely not a book for the linear thinker. A book about the opium trade out of India, it creates in the reader the feeling of being in some kind of dream, where events are disconnected and not understood. Unless you have some knowledge of the history of theopium trade and India in this period, you might become lost in this novel. Very well written, with the main character, Hiran, being passive and baffled by the English presence in India, a reflection of Indian society at that period.
February 14, 2014
A lovely book and I would say Basu is one of the most interesting authors currently writing about India. The prose is considered and things are explained through the action rather than as an aside or just straight up.
This story follows the history of the opium trade from Calcutta at the time of the Uprising to China and Sarawak through the end of WW1. Interesting historical and cultural aspects really add to the book.
This story follows the history of the opium trade from Calcutta at the time of the Uprising to China and Sarawak through the end of WW1. Interesting historical and cultural aspects really add to the book.
September 23, 2009
A piece of historical fiction that highlights how important opium was to the British empire - they were exporting it from India to China. It also made me think about how the sea/colonies allowed British people (and perhaps also Indians) a place to escape the strictures of traditional society and remake themselves into anything they wanted to be. Perhaps some of this lives on in America.
May 24, 2018
I love historical fictions and I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but something about the prose made it very difficult to get into and find rhythm in the reading. The descriptions were always wonderful, but I felt disconnected from the characters and I think it had a lot to do with the way it was written. It wasn't a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, but it just wasn't one that drew me in.
February 23, 2022
I picked it up once because the premises sounded interesting. But this turned out to be one of the most soporific books ever. One wonders what the author wanted to achieve and the story went nowhere.
September 26, 2024
Great subject matter but the dreamy and disjointed style of prose does not suit the genre of historical fiction imo. Or perhaps only Haruki Murakami can pull it off.
January 20, 2011
this book was OK...I was confused a lot of the time and I kept waiting for *something* to happen. there were huge time leaps that added to the confusion. I was hoping this would help me bide my time till the 2nd book in Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy arrives, but this book pales by comparison.
October 15, 2014
The book begins with a bang and the story and setting are set impressively. But then, sadly, the author the narrative and the hero, get lost in the offices of the opium exporting emporium and lose their way - and the readers interest.
January 2, 2016
The words are beautifully arranged, even poetic at times. But this also becomes its flaw, the structure of the storyline suffers, insacrifice for poetic flow. Certain parts are confusingly told. In addition, the books becomes thinner at the end, meaning the story takes over the language.
July 27, 2011
Quite dreamy. A good read.
May 20, 2015
This is one good writer.
November 24, 2012
This is one of this books that was slow going at first, but then I was sorry to leave it's world when it was over. Very richly drawn, I could picture the time and place of 19th century India.
March 16, 2015
Very boring. Stopped reading after a few pages.
August 2, 2020
Disappointing. I thought the author squandered a lot of opportunities here. I hope his others are better.
October 5, 2015
enjoyed it but the story didn't seem to really have a structure or plot
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews