The Opium Eaters

About the Book

The Opium Eaters is the culminating novel of this trilogy. The first, One Way to Pakistan, is a gripping story of corruption and crime in Pakistan in which three women are abducted and how their lives are shattered. In the second novel, An Oath of Vengeance, Maria, the wife of an American doctor, Chamuck a tribal girl from Peshawar and Ankh struggle with terror and shame in their personal lives, being no more than chattel to their abductors. Braving death they seek their own ways to escape from their tormentors.

Quotes from Readers

While reading Harold’s remarkable- Opium Eaters- which happens to be the final novel to the three part saga (One Way to Pakistan, Oath of Vengeance and Opium Eaters), I was quite taken by his depth of knowledge of Muslim Culture.

In fact in the third novel Opium Eaters Harold showed how opium provides funds for the Taliban’s war against America and their imposition of democracy on Afghanistan. It reveals the frustrations of the Americans who are unable to destroy the opium smuggling from the root source- the tribal areas of Afghanistan to the Ports of Pakistan.

“His books…a marvelous read…show us a world we generally get to read about but rarely are a part of.”

Deepti Lamba, editor for Desicritics, Things that Bang.

“In his novel, An Oath of Vengeance, Harold Bergsma weaves a literary web which snares genre-junkies, mystery-lovers and hopeless romantics. This novel’s erratic plotline and scandalously intriguing characters will leave readers yearning for book three (Opium Eaters) to hit the shelves.” Stuart A Chipman, Valley Vanguard Weekly Columnist, Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan.

Harold Bergsma’s   An Oath of Vengeance  received a Notable Award Certificate in Writer’s Digest 16^th Annual International Self-Published Book awards

About the Author

Harold Bergsma, son of medical missionaries, grew up in Northern India in Taxila and Sialkot, an area which is today in Pakistan. He speaks Urdu.  He had his primary education in Woodstock International School in Mussoorie and lived as a boarding student at the school. He returned to India and took part in an ornithological expedition to Nepal for the Chicago Field Museum and National Geographic Society. Then he returned to finish his senior year in India at Woodstock. He returned again as a resident adult to Lahore, Pakistan and did educational development work with two different ministries. He traveled widely in Pakistan for his work and for recreation. These travels took him from Karachi to Swat, from Peshawar to Quetta, from the Sindh to Azad Kashmir.

            A collection of folk stories in Nigeria, Tales Tiv Tell,  was published by Oxford University Press and is in its fourth reprint. His published memoir is called Rhododendron Wine Factory. His first fictional work, Lalla and Lavina, Stories about Indian Women, was published by the author in 2005. His multicultural trilogy, novels about three women in Pakistan who were abducted and made sex slaves has been published; (See Amazon) One Way to Pakistan and An Oath of Vengeance. The third novel The Opium Eaters was completed in 2009.  He has published widely in professional journals and has been a frequent contributor to Desicritics. http://www.haroldbergsma.com/                      

            Bergsma, now lives with his wife Lily Chu, also a writer, in downtown San Diego near the bay. He and his wife travel internationally both for recreational and information gathering purposes. Harold has been singing most of his life as a soloist, oratorio and choir member.