The Coffee Trader: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

His second novel takes place in 17th-century Amsterdam in 1659 during the Golden Age. The book's main character is a Portuguese Jew named Miguel Lienzo, who has recently lost a bundle after the sugar market crash and is now trying to resurrect himself by searching for investors who would consider a new product called "coffee".

Broke and busted, Miguel must take shelter in the basement of his brother's house. Daniel, who also works at the booming commodities exchange, tells his brother not to waste his time vying for a lucrative fortune in the coffee trade. But after learning about the possible financial windfall from the provocative Dutchwoman Geertrud Damhuis, Miguel is utterly convinced that coffee will become a worthwhile investment.

However, being Jewish in Amsterdam during the Golden Age was extremely difficult for any promising entrepreneur. For instance, Miguel must be careful not to scorn the Ma'amad, the restrictive and mysterious governing body of the Jewish community. He must also be wary not to conduct business with anyone who is not Jewish, something extremely forbidden during the mid-1650s. Miguel also has to deal with his bothersome brother Daniel and his mousy wife Hannah, who seems to be falling in love with Miguel. On top of that, he has to deal with Hendrick, a man seething with anti-Semitism and a close associate to his business partner, Geertrud. Throughout the book, Hendrick refers to Miguel as "Jew Man."

During the course of close to 400 pages, I couldn't read THE COFFEE TRADER without either sitting in the kitchen of my apartment and brewing a pot of the luscious black beverage or venturing out to my local Starbucks and ordering a grande Sumatra with room for milk. Even from the opening pages of the novel, Miguel is sitting with Geertrud and she is introducing him to the wonders of coffee. This is where Liss's work truly shines. He does a magnificent job conveying to his audience the allure of coffee and its magical ability to induce mental awareness and intellectual prowess.

Not only is this wonderful novel chock full of suspense, intrigue and a touch of romance, it's also extremely funny at times. For instance, when Daniel's wife, Hannah, who is obviously smitten with Miguel, raids his stash of coffee beans instead of attempting to brew them in a conventional fashion, she chomps on the beans and finds them to be utterly exquisite. Yuck!

Liss also completed exhaustive research before sitting down to write THE COFFEE TRADER, which took a year and a half to finish. At the end of the book, after his Historical Note, is a lengthy Works Consulted section with over 30 books Liss read in order to set the proper tone for this historical piece of fiction. What's most fascinating about Liss's work is his incredible ability to transport the reader back in time. His ability to handle the nuisances of everyday life in Amsterdam over 344 years ago is utterly amazing. Liss paints an incredible landscape in detailing the rising commodities exchange in Amsterdam at that time. He also does an excellent job describing the seediness of pub life and how schemers would spread rumors about ships being looted by pirates in order to decrease the worth of cargo expected to arrive in the nearby docks.

It gets to the point where Miguel doesn't exactly know who to trust and, in some ways, THE COFFEE TRADER emulates the risks that investors take today in dealing with high finance.

If you are a coffee fanatic like myself, then by all means go out and get yourself a copy of THE COFFEE TRADER, head to your nearest coffee shop and hunker down with this incredible saga.

--- Reviewed by David Exum


A Great Read!   March 17, 2003
Falco Gingrich
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

I loved Lissýs first book, A Conspiracy of Paper, but I have to say I think I love The Coffee Trader even more. This one is set in 17th century Amsterdam and concerns a traderýs efforts to get a monopoly on coffee just as coffee is first emerging in Europe. This novel moves and feels like a thriller, and I kept turning pages late into the night to find out what happens next, but Liss doesnýt rely on tricks used by cheap thrillers ý no piles of bodies or burning buildings, etc. His protagonistýs anxiety about debt, ruin and humiliation make this novel moving and real and very, very compelling.

Liss tackles a number of tough topics here: commodities speculation in the 1600s, the insularity and paranoia of the Amsterdam Jewish population, the corrupting nature of trade, and so on. He clearly knows his stuff, and I walked away from the book feeling like I had received a great history lesson, but the book never gets bogged down with details. Probably because the characters are so believable and compelling. Every character has some kind of secret agenda, but it is never what you think, and the novelýs conclusion is risky, but very, very satisfying.

This is the best historical novel Iýve read in years. It is suspenseful, funny and addictive. Even people who donýt like historicals should check it out.


Put on the kettle and hunker down for a lively read.   March 12, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

As enjoyable as David Liss's first book, A Conspiracy of Paper, may have been, his sophmore effort revals no slump, easily trumping his debut. The Coffee Trader, whose characters Liss's readers may find familiar, takes place in 1659 in Amsterdam, one of Europe's more cosmopolitan and lively cities of the era; merchants and traders, Jews and gentiles, thieves and whores, enliven the city's human tapestry providing intrigue at every turn. The story follows Miguel Lienzo, a Portugese Jew chased from his homeland by the brutal tactics of the Inquisition. Thinking such horrors behind him, he embarks on a career as a trader in Amsterdam; astonishingly, he encounters unsavory characters within his own community whose deviousness eerily echoes that of the Inquisition. But, perked up by a strange, new, bitter berry extract, brewed up for him by an enterprising woman he knows from unsavory taverns, he grinds out a plan to introduce coffee to this part of the world, defeat his enemies and conquer the market in the process. Liss's hilarious descriptions of these nescafe-neophytes is classic -- some chew the beans, others inexplicably mix it with other beverages, never quite getting the brewing process right; in fact, though none of them really like the stuff, they have to have more. Isn't this how we all got started? And the thoroughness of the author's research allows him, through vivid descriptions of streets and markets that one might even recognize today, to transport his readers to 17th century Amsterdam with remarkable clarity. Liss is good enough not to wrap the book up with a Hollywood-style ending, either (if it's made into a film, it surely will be made nice and tidy). Instead, the story concludes with an embedded lesson: all things come with a price.


Gripping suspense, rooted in fascinating historical moment   March 19, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The Coffee Trader more than continues David Liss's tradition of crafting gripping suspense stories embedded within a fascinating historical moment. The story begins with the father from A Conspiracy of Paper, down on his luck and struggling to survive some poor trading choices, being approached by a strange associate about a mysterious new drink she has encountered, that is reputed to have strange powers...

Liss uses a variety of voices to skillfully keep the reader off-balance, as characters' lives and agendas intersect in unpredictable ways. Each new twist had me gasping, and I stayed up long past a reasonable hour to find out what would happen.

Liss also manages to maintain the historical integrity of his characters - giving them ideas and opinions that honestly reflect the times, while still managing to make them appealing protagonists. The character of Hannah, the wife of the main character's brother, is a particularly excellent example of this.

Romance, suspense and humor combine to produce a satisfying story with an unsettling ending. Although it took me awhile to accept some of the fates and choices made by men and women in the book, ultimately I admire Liss for making his own complex choices and refusing to simplify characters for the sake of a sugar-coated end.


Before Starbucks there was...   April 5, 2003
Mark A. Thompson (Seal Beach, California)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The Coffee Trader immediately engages the reader in a vibrant world of intrigue and high-stakes speculation in an unlikely but wonderfully exotic setting-- Amsterdam in the middle of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century. It is a story of loyality vs. betrayal, honesty vs. duplicity, familial battles and unpredictable alliiances. David Liss has managed to capture the colorful world of Sephardic Jews, who having escaped the inferno of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, struggle to find their identity in their New Jerusalem, the sometimes not-so-tolerant Dutch Republic. The story centers around Miguel Lienzo, a Jewish commodities trader who hatches a plan to corner the market in a newly discovered commodity--coffee--and become rich overnight. His challenge is to keep his plan a secret from those who would scheme against him, including members of his own family and community. The Coffee Trader serves not only as a primer on the history of the coffee trade, but a lesson on the mechanics of trading techniques on the first modern commodities exchange-- the Bourse in Amsterdam. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the Dutch Republic, Sephardic Jewry; coffee lovers and futures traders."