Sugar Money
A Novel
-
- $16.99
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
Set in 1765 on the Caribbean islands of Grenada and Martinique, Sugar Money opens as two enslaved brothers - Emile and Lucien - are sent on an impossible mission forced upon them by their masters, a band of mendicant French monks.
The monks run hospitals in the islands and fund their ventures through farming cane sugar and distilling rum. Seven years earlier - after a series of scandals - they were ousted from Grenada by the French authorities, and had to leave their slaves behind. Despite the fact that Grenada is now under British rule, and effectively enemy territory, the monks devise an absurdly ambitious plan: they send Emile and Lucien to the island to convince the monks’ former slaves to flee British brutality and escape with them.
Based on a historical rebellion, award-winning writer Jane Harris peoples her daring novel with unforgettable characters. Recounted by Lucien, the younger brother, this story of courage, disaster, and love, is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit under the crush of unspeakable cruelty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harris (Gillespie and I) draws on an obscure historical event to craft an affecting account of a young boy's coming-of-age. The story is narrated by Lucien, a slave "thirteen or fourteen years old" working on Martinique, who has already been taught by life to always expect the worst. In 1765, he and his brother, Emile, who's more than twice his age, are summoned by Father Cl ophas, a mendicant friar, to carry out a perilous mission on Grenada, where Lucien was born. After making a routine delivery, the siblings are to retrieve about 40 slaves who once belonged to the Martinique friars but now work at a hospital there and on the plantation whose proceeds support the hospital's work. Cl ophas claims that the assignment has the approval of Grenada's English governor, but cautions that the Englishmen running the hospital dispute the friars' claims of ownership. Lucien and Emile undertake the venture, which, unsurprisingly, does not go smoothly. Harris makes the most of her choice to portray the cruelties of slavery through the eyes of a young lead, a decision that pays off handsomely by the moving conclusion.