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Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:The Edgar Awardâ??winning novel A Conspiracy of Paper was one of the most acclaimed debuts of the year. 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, 1659â??a mysterious world of trade populated by schemers and rogues, where deception rules the day. On the worldâ??s first commodities exchange, fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo, a sharp-witted trader in the cityâ??s close-knit community of Portuguese Jews, knows this only too well. Once among the cityâ??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 successâ??a daring plot to corner the market of an astonishing new commodity called â??coffee.â?ť 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 Amsterdamâ??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… (more)
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The protaganist of the story is Miguel Lienzo, who is part of the community of Portuguese Jews living and working in Amsterdam. Miguel is attempting to rescue himself from financial ruin by setting up a scheme to corner a new commodities market - coffee.
The writing is excellent and evocative. Although I've never been to Amsterdam, by the end of the book I could recognize neighborhoods, rivers, markets, taverns and even smell the city. It is worth reading the book just for the history. It is also quite a page turner, as the suspense builds up and keeps you guessing as the novel moves along.
The reason I only gave the book 3.5 stars is because the characters, while interesting, lacked an emotional depth that I require in order to LOVE a book. You want to have something to grab onto in a character, whether good or bad, in order to set your allegiances. The story here was great, but I just didn't care that much about most of the characters one way or the other.
The most interesting aspect of the book was in its parallels to what is happening in today's economy. This book depicts the origin and birthplace of "exotic financial instruments," and then, just like today, the trading of these instruments led to some pretty seedy behavior. Behavior that was at best questionable and at worst entirely despicable. If it weren't for the setting and the funny clothes, customs and speech, the novel could have taken place on Wall Street!
I enjoyed the story overall. The characters are well and richly drawn. It is difficult to like any of them unreservedly as their faults are just as apparent to the reader as their virtues—this makes them seem much more human. The strong point of this novel is Liss' ability to keep the reader guessing about who is playing whom. As Miguel tries to unravel the motivations of those around him, the reader is entertained with deciphering the shifting and sliding alliances.
This is worth a read.
The tale here regards Miguel Lienzo, and revolves around his attempt with a Dutch widow, Geertruid Damhuis, to corner the market on coffee and by those means amass a considerable fortune. The problems facing them are considerable, as well - building a market for coffee when it's a real niche product at that point, raising the capital, avoiding the notice of the Ma'amad, the Jewish council that seeks to maintain strict order over the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam.
The plot is interesting and intricate, and ended in a place that I found surprising and satisfying, but the characters really carried the day. Miguel's a compelling lead, trying to work his way out of debt, charming but not entirely good, self-serving but wanting to help the community, as well. His business partner Geertruid; his brother, business rival, and creditor Daniel; Ma'amad leader and businessman Solomon Parido; Daniel's wife Hannah; excommunicated usurer Alferonda; all and more feel very real and interesting, as fictional characters go, and I very much enjoyed reading about them.
Liss's writing style is still very strong, evoking the time period nicely and giving a real sense of what it was to live there. Similarly, the concepts of calls, puts, and the other trading mechanisms come across cleanly and without too much effort.
All of Liss's books that I've read thus far have been very good, and this one won't disappoint you. I'm not sure I'd start with this one if I'm introducing someone to his work - A Conspiracy of Paper is probably better for that - but it's certainly a good place to continue.
All of Amsterdam seems to be against the
Wonderfully developed characters that make you want to shake the book and yell "What are you doing silly!" as if there were really in front of you. I found myself feeling sympathy for the oddest sorts of folk and cheering for the "bad" guy at times. A definate must read.
However, this book was a perfect fit for me because of all the social and historical information Liss conveys so skillfully. My cup of tea. Or coffee. The homes of the
How Jews had to live undercover as Christians (Conversos) in Inquisition-era Portugal. Jews' relative freedom in the Netherlands. (England at the time was somewhere in between: you could be Jewish but not flaunt it.)
How the Jewish governing body, the Ma'amad, exercised control of Jewish dealings with the Christians. And also its power over Jewish women, requiring them to cover themselves completely (sound familiar?).
The semi-hidden nature of Catholics in the Netherlands--their churches behind other facades. Geertruid, Miguel 's business partner, a Christian Dutch woman drinking alcohol in public drinking places.
[The Coffee Trader] is the story of Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese Jew living in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Miguel makes his living by trading on the stock market, then in its infancy. He was formerly very successful but, shortly before the book begins, he lost his
Miguel has now become the equivalent of what the 20th century would call a Day Trader, hanging around listening to market gossip, piecing together short term deals here and there and hoping that when the reckoning is done – once a month in those days – he will have reduced rather than added to his huge debts. His trading difficulties are made worse by the restrictions placed on Jewish traders, not by the Dutch government but by the religious leaders of the Jewish community, who are trying to ensure the continued toleration of the majority community by avoiding too much financial conflict. Jews are allowed to trade with non-Jews, but not to partner with them, and not to deal on their behalf, and all their financial transactions are supposed to remain within the Jewish community. Miguel has never really adhered to these rules, although he does have to be careful not to be too blatant, or he will be expelled from the community.
At the beginning of the story, a Dutch acquaintance of his offers him a partnership in trying to corner the market in coffee, then a new commodity in Europe. They hatch a plan to ensure they can buy a lot of coffee cheaply, then sell it for a higher price and make a fortune. Those who understand stock markets will grasp easily how they hope to do this, and will know whether it is legal or not. I had no idea on both scores, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment.
The story consists of Miguel finding out about this new coffee – there are several amusing scenes of people encountering it for the first time, not knowing how to prepare or drink it, surprised at its bitter taste and impressed by its stimulant properties – and interacting with various characters either trying to find out what he is doing, offering to help him, or warning him off, as well as with some characters from his past dealings. He doesn’t always know whom to trust, and he doesn’t always make the right decisions. The story is as much about trust and integrity and their role in this new kind of business dealing (then as now, very limited if you want to be successful) as it is about coffee and the stock market.
It is a good story and I enjoyed it. But I found the characters mainly very weak and one-dimensional. Miguel’s brother Daniel = spiteful, the head of the Jewish community = insincere, his business partner = enigmatic, etc. None of them felt real to me, and I couldn’t understand the motivations for many of their actions. If you are happy to read a story driven mainly by plot, with little realistic character development, you are likely to enjoy this book. But if you prefer to follow characters on a journey of self-discovery, enlightenment, growth, etc., this is probably not for you.
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.
But, there is a but, as good as some reviewers have felt, Liss spends a great deal in the early part of this otherwise well crafted tale, hitting us with a great deal of tell instead of show. Long paragraphs help set the piece, but leave no room to unfold the tale tale early on. It leaves me wanting to catch my breath, take a break.
Liss does a tremendous job describing a world and you feel that you are there, and understand it, and can grasp the complex nature of his characters quest for profit and success in trade. He however needed to bring in something to break up that in the beginning.
Working around that, is a tale carefully plotted, that when all seems well, a disaster looms to cast all in doubt and leave the reader hungry for more of the tale at that precise moment. A well done job, certainly worth the time and investment.
He needs to recoup his losses from the sugar crash, but struggles to do so with his own brother and a powerful member of the Ma’amad, Senhor Parido. It is only when Geertruid, a whore and tavern frequenter, entices him with a scheme for cornering the coffee trade out from under the noses of the British East India Company that Lienzo is able to begin his journey on the road to financial recovery. But is she to be trusted?
Faster paced than his novel "Whiskey Rebels," Liss sticks to his financial scheming formula and makes economy and commerce of the time interesting as well as instructional. Enjoyed this intellectual and rather esoteric historical fiction novel by a writer who does it originally and well.
The whole time I was
in a nutshell:
Liss sets this story in Amsterdam, in (I think) 1659. Even then Amsterdam was the scene of a hearty commodities trade exchange, where fortunes could be made or broken by what took place on the floor, and on the high seas as well (don't forget...at this time the Dutch East India Company was doing a lucrative trade, but there were also pirates and storms that could steal or sink a boatload of goods that were meant for the market. As the story opens, Miguel Lienzo, who was originally from Portugal but who had to leave after his family met misfortune with the Inquisition there (he was Jewish in the wrong time and the wrong place), has just lost a fortune and put himself deeply into debt over sugar. As he's wondering what to do and how to stave off his creditors, he learns from a friend in a seedier part of town that she thinks coffee is going to be the next big thing, and he decides to enter the coffee market, and jump way ahead of everyone else. At that time, coffee was virtually unknown except in the Turkish quarter. However, aside from the money problem, Miguel finds himself at the hands of a very powerful competitor and enemy from within the ranks of the local Jewish council and others who do not want to see him succeed.
It takes a while to really get into this book, but once you're there, it is a very good read. It is not really a "thriller" as it is described in many places, but it is a fine read and I recommend it if you want something out of the mainstream.
My endless wait became enjoyable. With The Coffee Trader, author David Liss has penned a
The plot is all-too-understood by anyone who trades for a living. Miguel Lienzo has lost everything. Impoverished and humiliated, he plots a path to return his wealth and reputation. Along the way he encounters unforgettable characters and plot twists.
In addition to being a great read, the book draws a vivid picture of 17th Century Amsterdam. Open to immigration, innovative in its commerce, the city offers a perfect setting for Liss’ theme of whether people who manipulate money for a living are inevitably tempted to manipulate truth and morality.
If you are like me and have missed this book, do yourself a favor. Buy a copy. Read it. Its financial schemes, complex characters and intrigue-ridden plot provide an unforgettable story.
Penned by the Pointed Pundit
August 29, 2007
9:20:30 PM