| Reviews: |
|
Avigail (Israel) (2009/07/21):
From Publishers Weekly
Liss's first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, was sketched on the wide canvas of 18th-century London's multilayered society. This one, in contrast, is set in the confined world of 17th-century Amsterdam's immigrant Jewish community. Liss makes up the difference in scale with ease, establishing suspense early on. Miguel Lienzo escaped the Inquisition in Portugal and lives by his wits trading commodities. He honed his skills in deception during years of hiding his Jewish identity in Portugal, so he finds it easy to engage in the evasions and bluffs necessary for a trader on Amsterdam's stock exchange. While he wants to retain his standing in the Jewish community, he finds it increasingly difficult to abide by the draconian dictates of the Ma'amad, the ruling council. Which is all the more reason not to acknowledge his longing for his brother's wife, with whom he now lives, having lost all his money in the sugar trade. Miguel is delighted when a sexy Dutch widow enlists him as partner in a secret scheme to make a killing on "coffee fruit," an exotic bean little known to Europeans in 1659. But she may not be as altruistic as she seems. Soon Miguel is caught in a web of intricate deals, while simultaneously fending off a madman desperate for money, and an enemy who uses the Ma'amad to make Miguel an outcast. Each player in this complex thriller has a hidden agenda, and the twists and turns accelerate as motives gradually become clear. There's a central question, too: When men manipulate money for a living, are they then inevitably tempted to manipulate truth and morality?26.04.09:
---------
This is a very strong book to read. By that, this book has depth. As a historical novel, you want some glimpse into the world as it was so that you leave with some factual understanding of that period admidst the fiction. In Coffee Trader you learn a great deal about Amsterdam, the center of finance in the 1600's. You also learn of the flourishing jewish community free of the inquisition and how that atrocious institution changed the attitudes of the people it persecuted to a degree. This is handled with a deft hand so you are not preached at. One gets the impression, rather, that he has been to a previous time and come back to tell us about it; there is such a depth of description and such a keen understanding of other minds, other priorities, other concerns, that one feels it is another (plausible) world. In conclution The Coffee Trader is an entertaining page turner with danger, romance, mystery and lots and lots of lying and deception on the part of virtually everyone in the narrative. The central action might focus on commodity manipulation (something that some people might find boring - but which is actually as good a theater for action as any crime drama) but the meat of the story involves sexual desire, culture clashes, alliance making and criminal scheming and betrayal straight out of noire film. There's a wicked twist at the end too. The fact that the setting is a brilliantly researched and detailed seventeenth century Amsterdam is just icing on the cake. This one was fun. Highly recommended.
|
