The Coffee Trader

by David Liss

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 commodit