Fortune - by Amanda Smyth (Paperback)
Similar Products
Products of same category from the store
All
Product info
<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>Eddie Wade has recently returned from the US oilfields. He is determined to sink his own well and make his fortune in the 1920s Trinidad oil-rush. His sights are set on Sonny Chatterjee's failing cocoa estate, Kushi, where the ground is so full of oil you can put a stick in the ground and see it bubble up. When a fortuitous meeting with businessman Tito Fernandez brings Eddie the investor he desperately needs, the three men enter into a partnership. A friendship between Tito and Eddie begins that will change their lives forever, not least when the oil starts gushing. But their partnership also brings Eddie into contact with Ada, Tito's beautiful wife, and as much as they try, they cannot avoid the attraction they feel for each other. Fortune, based on true events, catches Trinidad at a moment of historical change whose consequences reverberate down to present concerns with climate change and environmental destruction. As a story of love and ambition, its focus is on individuals so enmeshed in their desires that they blindly enter the territory of classic Greek tragedy where actions always have consequences.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"A writer has to be at the heights of her power to slip so comfortably, so beautifully into the skin of history and let it breathe like this. Trinidad is at a crossroads: cocoa is literally dying; oil is about to change everything. Smyth gathers a wonderful cast of characters to meet at this crossroads and everyone's fortune is at stake. This is Smyth's best novel to date." --<b>Kei Miller</b><br><br>"Amanda Smyth writes like a descendant of Jean Rhys... a born novelist" --<b>Ali Smith</b><br><br>"Based on a true story, and set amidst Trinidad's early oilfields in the 1920s, this book satisfies on so many levels. Skilfully crafted, meticulously plotted, and written in sentences of polished platinum, Fortune is a master work of Caribbean literature and a book which will stay with me for a long time. Smyth, here, is writing at the top of her game." --<b>Monique Roffey</b><br><br>"Fortune is a sexy, steamy, infinitely subtle novel. Like all the best literature, it takes a big canvas and yet foregrounds a small set of characters in order to create a page-turning narrative. This is a story about oil, ambition and money - but it's also a story about intimacy and love. Somebody will be making the movie of this novel in a couple of years time and I'm really looking forward to seeing it on the big screen." --<b>Jane Harris</b><br><br>"Intimate and extraordinary, beautiful and brutal, this master storyteller brings alive the lost world of 1920s Trinidad in an ageless parable of fate and desire. Smyth's concerns are elemental: the oil whispering beneath the ground, the passions concealed in the heart, and the terrible cost of bringing these things to the surface. Tender, warm and wise, this is a novel of patient honesty and metaphysical depth that leaves the reader transported." --<b>Chris Cleave</b><br><br>"Like a fossil you might unearth in the sediment of south Trinidad, Amanda Smyth's Fortune is a glimpse of a bygone world in which patterns echo warnings: after oil comes trouble, after joy comes sorrow, what is right can also be wrong. With remarkable economy, the complexities of oil prospecting, the human heart, and the natural world are distilled into a compelling narrative that gushes forward. It is a book as enthralled with Trinidad as its doomed characters are; a work that understands how Midas, for all his gold, was cursed." --<b>Andre Bagoo</b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Amanda Smyth</b> is Irish-Trinidadian. Born in Ireland, she is the author of <i>Black Rock</i> (2009) and <i>A Kind of Eden</i> (2013). <i>Black Rock</i> won the Prix du Premier Roman prize, was shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize, and selected as an Oprah Winfrey Summer Read. Amanda teaches creative writing at Arvon, Skyros in Greece, and at Coventry University. She lives in Leamington Spa with her family.
Price History
Price Archive shows prices from various stores, lets you see history and find the cheapest. There is no actual sale on the website. For all support, inquiry and suggestion messagescommunication@pricearchive.us