"As Lucy Inglis recounts in her sweeping new history of opium, the tension between the substance’s medicinal virtue and its dangers is ancient. [She] untangles these contradictions with gusto. A deeply researched and captivating book."

– The Economist

"This sweeping history explores our millennia-long relationship with Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. Deftly tracking opium’s path along global trade routes, Inglis illuminates various cultures and industries that have sprung up around it, from the Chinese opium den to the contemporary pharmaceutical manufacture of opioids."

– The New Yorker

"A model of lucidity. This timely account will interest advocates and concerned citizens. Inglis’s skillful command of style will please them all."

– Library Journal (starred)

"A learned, engaging, and ambitious look at the cultural history of a product that’s much talked about these days but little understood. Inglis provides a sweeping history of the cultivation and uses of opium across a millennium and across cultures, showing how it’s been stitched into the fabric of our societies, time and again, always a complex and provocative relationship."

– CrimeReads

"A sweeping, panoramic history of opium and its deep roots in a vast array of societies and cultures. Inglis' history is not only wide, but deep due to her keen analysis of how entrenched opium is in modern culture in everything, from medicine to war to addiction to commerce. A well-crafted history of civilization seen through the prism of one of the most profitable agricultural products in human history."

– Kirkus Reviews

"In this wide-ranging and at times vivid narrative, Inglis charts several millennia of opium’s history. A must-read for anyone interested in the roots of the opioid crisis."

– Publishers Weekly

"Lucy Inglis’s fabulous book Milk of Paradise is the history of civilisation as shaped by opium. A triumph, epic in scale and full of humanity."

– The Times (London)

"Lucy Inglis has done a wonderful job bringing together a wide range of sources to tell the history of the most exciting and dangerous plants in the world. Telling the story of opium tells us much about our faults and foibles as humans—our willingness to experiment; our ability to become addicts; our pursuit of money. This book tells us more than about opium; it tells us about ourselves."

– Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

"An invaluable resource for any reader who wants an exhaustive understanding of the world’s opioid crisis. As Inglis makes clear, opium has long been a substance of deep social, political, religious, and economic significance."

– American Conservative

"An important book."

– New Criterion