The Coffee Trader
By David Liss  

     Miguel Lienzo is a Portuguese Jew living in the comparative haven of Amsterdam, away from the horrors of the Inquisition. He is a trader on the new commodities exchange, although since being ruined a few months before, he is living with his mean-spirited brother, his repressed but beautiful wife and their cheeky Dutch servant. When bold, independent widow Geertruid Damhuis introduces him to the relatively new powers of coffee and proposes a business partnership, he thinks that his fortunes will soon be recouped. But as he tries to trade with the Dutch and keep on the good side of the Ma’Amad he has no idea who his friends and enemies are and is about to discover that he has quite a few of both, and nothing is quite as it seems.

     Teetering on the edge of literary,this novel still manages to fall on the popular side and can be read as both a tortuous tale of stock market wheeling-dealing and a deeper novel of trust and betrayal, where events repeat themselves and everything has a hidden meaning. Liss has done his homework and the brisk commercial world of the Dutch golden age together with the more secretive world of the Jews comes to bustling life in this novel. It could stand some editing and treads water in the middle somewhat, (when nothing new is introduced and we await the dénouement) but it has a powerful beginning and an impressive end. Miguel seems all too human as he wends his way through a world of tricksters and schemers, trying to make some money and win the girl of his dreams; he is an ideal protagonist for the reader to identify with. This is one to mull over and savor – like a good cup of coffee!