The Coffee Trader by David Liss

The Coffee Trader is an “historical financial thriller” which sounds impossibly dull, but is not.  

The novel takes place in 1659 Amsterdam, a bustling international center of business and home to the first commodities exchange. Miguel Lienzo is a clever trader who recently lost everything on sugar futures.  He is frantic to restore his fortunes and his reputation in the close knit, watchful Portuguese Jewish community of which he is a member.

An enigmatic Dutch woman offers him the opportunity to make a killing by cornering the market in a new commodity called “coffee,” which is only just becoming popular in Western Europe.

Miguel’s Jewish colleagues strongly disapprove of doing business with the Dutch. It is a rule that Miguel regularly ignores, but, if discovered, a partnership with a Dutch woman would certainly result in his excommunication.

Intrigued and desperate, Miguel agrees to the risky scheme. Dogged by a powerful enemy and shifty friends, Miguel scrambles to resurrect his professional and personal life.

A well plotted historical mystery of betrayal, romance, and financial skullduggery.

Another novel about 17thC Portuguese Jews is The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. Set in 17thC and 20thC London, the novel is the story of Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is scribe for a rabbi and Helen Watt, a scholar of Jewish history. Highly recommended for readers who enjoyed A.S. Byatt’s Possession.