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Book Review;New fiction fromIndia;Lotus-eaters; 书评;印度新小说;醉生梦死的人; Narcopolis. By Jeet Thayil. 《Narcopolis》，Jeet Thayil著。 The official history of Mumbai attributes the city srise to its natural harbour and textile industry. Butbefore cotton mills came to dominate thelandscape, Mumbai s merchants grew fatexporting opium to China. The city s main schoolsof art and architecture and its best public hospitalare named for a pioneer of the trade, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, as is a 2.4km elevated roadthat cuts through the old city. 官方史记载孟买的崛起源于天然港口和纺织业。但在印度纺织厂占主导地位前，孟买的商人已经从向中国出口鸦片的贸易中获得丰厚利润。这座城市的艺术建筑设计学院和一流的公历医院就是以一个贸易先驱者詹姆塞特吉吉吉博伊的名字命名的，，他也出资修建一条2.4千米的高架道路，横穿这个古老的城市。 In the shadow of that viaduct lies Shuklaji Street, Mumbai s last connection with opium. Itwasn t much of a street, notes Dom Ullis, the narrator of Jeet Thayil s debut novel, Narcopolis, but it was the epicentre of vice: prostitutes, drug dealers and petty criminals.Dom arrives here to partake in Mumbai s love affair with opiumjust as it is drawing to a close, some 150 years after it started. | 
