Timothy Mo’s sweeping historical novel is set on the China coast in the 1830s, before and during the 19th-century Opium Wars.

In 1833, Walter Eastman and Gideon Chase, young Americans working in the ‘Factories’ - the home of the East India Company on the south China coast - are at loggerheads with the European community which thrives on the opium trade. When Eastman is fired, he and Chase establish an irreverent weekly paper, which shows a flamboyance and crusading zeal. When the first Opium War breaks out their lives grow increasingly dangerous.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1986
Published by
Chatto & Windus
Publication date
Timothy Mo

Timothy Mo

About the Author

Timothy Peter Mo was born in Hong Kong. Three of his novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
More about Timothy Mo

Other nominated books by Timothy Mo

The Redundancy of Courage
Sour Sweet