'Red Poppies' is the story of the wealthy Maiqi family: its powerful chieftain, his wife, his son, and his second, "'idiot" child - the novel's narrator and unlikely hero. Their stone fortress overlooks the arid steppes and all they rule: a scattered populace of peasant farmers, merchants and lamas. But keeping power in the feudal politics of 1930s Tibet has its price.
When a dispute breaks out with the neighbouring chieftain, an emissary of the Chinese Nationalists comes to the Maiqis' aid with the tools of modern warfare. In exchange, the Maiqis must plant fields of poppies, valuable in the Nationalist-sponsored heroin trade. It is a bargain that enriches the family's lavish lifestyle and earns them dangerous enmity, in the first twist of a story that will reach its climax years later, on the very eve of the Chinese occupation in 1950.
Filled with intriguing characters and high drama, 'Red Poppies' is a sweeping, cinematic novel you won't forget.
