In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese-Jewish trader desperate to recover his lost fortune, enters into a partnership with seductive Geertruid Damhuis to introduce coffee to the city, and confronts a ruthless adversary. - (Baker & Taylor)
In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese-Jewish trader who has lost everything in the sugar market and is desperate to recover his fortune, enters into a partnership with seductive Geertruid Damhouder to introduce coffee to the city and must confront betrayal, greed, and a ruthless adversary to succeed. 75,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
On the world's first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city's close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city's most envied merchants, Miguel has lost everything in a sudden shift in the sugar markets. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living on the charity of his petty younger brother, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation.
Miguel enters into a partnership with a seductive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success - a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called "coffee." To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he values and test the limits of his commercial guile, facing not only the chaos of the markets and the greed of his competitors, but also a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him ruined. Miguel will learn that among Amsterdam's ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere, and even friends hide secret agendas. - (Blackwell North Amer)
The Edgar Award–winning novel A Conspiracy of Paper was one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2000. In his richly suspenseful second novel, author David Liss once again travels back in time to a crucial moment in cultural and financial history. His destination: Amsterdam, 1659—a mysterious world of trade populated by schemers and rogues, where deception rules the day.
On the world’s first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city’s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city’s most envied merchants, Miguel has lost everything in a sudden shift in the sugar markets. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living on the charity of his petty younger brother, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation.
Miguel enters into a partnership with a seduc-tive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success—a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called “coffee.” To succeed, Miguel must risk everything he values and test the limits of his commercial guile, facing not only the chaos of the markets and the greed of his competitors, but also a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to see him ruined. Miguel will learn that among Amsterdam’s ruthless businessmen, betrayal lurks everywhere, and even friends hide secret agendas.
With humor, imagination, and mystery, David Liss depicts a world of subterfuge, danger, and repressed longing, where religious and cultural traditions clash with the demands of a new and exciting way of doing business. Readers of historical suspense and lovers of coffee (even decaf) will be up all night with this beguiling novel. - (Random House, Inc.)
David Liss is the author of A Conspiracy of Paper, winner of the 2000 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. He has a graduate degree in English literature from Columbia University, as well as an M.A. from Georgia State University and a B.S. from Syracuse University. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and daughter, and can be reached via his website, www.davidliss.com. - (Random House, Inc.)
ard–winning novel A Conspiracy of Paper was one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2000. In his richly suspenseful second novel, author David Liss once again travels back in time to a crucial moment in cultural and financial history. His destination: Amsterdam, 1659—a mysterious world of trade populated by schemers and rogues, where deception rules the day.
On the world’s first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the city’s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the city’s most envied merchants, Miguel has lost everything in a sudden shift in the sugar markets. Now, impoverished and humiliated, living on the charity of his petty younger brother, Miguel must find a way to restore his wealth and reputation.
Miguel enters into a partnership with a seduc-tive Dutchwoman who offers him one last chance at success—a daring plot to co - (Random House, Inc.)
Booklist Reviews
Liss follows his Edgar Award-winning debut, A Conspiracy of Paper (2000), with a historical novel that mines some of the same territory--interactions between Jews and Christians, with the stock exchange center stage. The setting this time is Amsterdam in the mid-1600s, where Jews could escape persecution and practice their religion freely. The dubious hero is Miguel Lienzo, a former secret Jew who has fled his native Portugal for this city of freedom. Once a successful commodities broker, Miguel is down on his luck until he tastes a strange foreign beverage called coffee and decides that the lowly bean is the key to regaining his fortunes. Miguel's convoluted and illegal plan for importing coffee leads to entanglements with enemies old and new and to a relationship with his brother's wife, an independent woman trapped in a restrictive culture. A well-researched study of deception and greed in which no character is above reproach. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews
