Montaro Caine
A Novel
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A baby is born with a coin in her hand. An orphan crafts a mysterious wooden object. The CEO of a large corporation finds himself under extraordinary pressure at work and at home. And on a remote hilltop on a Caribbean island, a medicine man seems to understand the meaning of all these events and to hold the key to the future.
Montaro Caine, CEO of the Fitzer Corporation, is losing control of the company he built just as his teenage daughter is experiencing her own difficulties. At this moment of crisis, a man and woman appear at his office with a coin of unknown provenance, composed of a metal unknown on Earth. Montaro immediately recognizes it as the companion of a coin he analyzed as a graduate student working in a lab at MIT, which was later returned to its unidentified owner. The coin’s appearance draws the attention of scientists, collectors, financiers, and thieves, all of whom vie to get their hands on it, and Montaro himself hopes that the discovery of the coin will save his company. But the value of the coin lies not in its monetary worth but in its hold on the people who come into contact with it. These include the young woman who is not aware of the object that was found in her hand at birth; an old man who, as a boy, crafted a wooden compact as a gift for a young Montaro Caine; and the elusive healer Matthew Perch, who, from his hut on a small Caribbean island, knows precisely why these people have been brought together and what wisdom the coin imparts.
Beloved actor and director Sidney Poitier takes us on a wild and unexpected adventure—from New York to Europe to the Caribbean and beyond—and offers a heartfelt message about the potential each of us has within ourselves, and about being open to the possibility that there are mysteries in the universe, and here on Earth, far greater than we can imagine. An enthralling journey into the magic of existence, Montaro Caine is a radiant debut from an American legend.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This curious debut novel from the Academy Award winning actor Poitier is a serviceable corporate thriller with a twist of religion and science fiction added to enliven its feel-good message. Montaro Caine, 54, the beleaguered CEO of Fitzer Chemical Corporation, is staving off financial ruin and a hostile takeover when he meets Colette Beekman and Herman Freich, two prospective investors. They show him an unusual coin resembling one that, 26 years before, the M.I.T.-trained scientist Montaro had found to be made of unknown elements. At their behest, he reanalyzes it and determines their coin to be slightly different from the one he originally tested. Meanwhile, obstetrician Howard Mozelle, owner of the first coin, discovers it has been stolen, possibly by Cordiss Krinkle, a former receptionist at his practice. Howard meets with Montaro and relates the bizarre tale of how Matthew Perch, a Bahamian "sorcerer" with some connection to the coins, cured Howard's wife, Elsen, of her cancer. As the race to find and benefit from the mysterious objects heats up, further revelations emerge about the coins' celestial origins. For an octogenarian first-time novelist, Poitier has delivered a surprisingly intricate, if idiosyncratic, tale sure to please his many fans.