Contributor(s): Amitav Ghosh | Flood of Fire, the conclusion to Amitav Ghosh's bestselling Ibis Trilogy, takes us from India to China, through the outbreak of the First Opium War and China’s devastating defeat, to Britain’s seizure of Hong Kong. It follows a varied cast of characters, among them a sepoy in the East India Company, an impoverished young sailor searching for his lost love, and a determined widow en route to China to reclaim her opium-trader husband’s wealth and reputation. Amitav Ghosh is one of the finalists for this year’s Man Booker International Prize. Here the Booker shortlisted, bestselling author, talks about his work and the true story that lies behind his latest novel. Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) was born in Calcutta and grew up in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. He studied at the universities of Delhi and Oxford and published the first of eight novels, The Circle of Reason in 1986. The first novel in his Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. He has gone on to sell over 3 million books worldwide, and his work is translated in to 33 languages. He currently divides his time between Calcutta, Goa and Brooklyn. Mukulika Banerjee is an Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at LSE and Director of the IGA South Asia Centre.