By Paul Carrier
This multi-layered novel explores the efforts of Miguel Lienzo, a 17th-century Portuguese Jew living in Amsterdam, to corner the European market on coffee with the help of a mysterious and seemingly well-heeled Dutch widow.
The interplay between the city's native-born Dutch population and its clannish Jewish immigrants is on full display in The Coffee Trader. So is the emerging, and sometimes humorous, addiction to what was then a relatively new beverage in Europe.
The schemes of duplicitous commodity traders in profit-crazed Amsterdam play out against a backdrop that contrasts the religious tolerance of Holland and the dangerously repressive practices of Inquisition-plagued Portugal.
Deceit abounds in this world of scheming would-be profiteers. The deception involves dubious business ethics more often than not, but its tangled roots can be religious as well.
Within the Jewish community, for example, we meet Dutch Jews who once posed as Catholics before fleeing Portugal, as well as one Portuguese immigrant to Amsterdam who appears to be a practicing Jew but remains secretly loyal to the Catholicism of her youth.
A compelling and well-paced novel, The Coffee Trader introduces us to flawed and nuanced characters whose complexity makes them all the more intriguing and believable. This is another great read from David Liss, a master of historical fiction.
