Debbie Jacob (
Fortune (Peepal Tree Press, 2021).
The best books make the most difficult subjects for reviews. Almost anything said about the book feels like divulging secrets, and
Fortune, Amanda Smyth’s latest novel, has secrets at every turn.
This we know for sure: Trinidadian-born Eddie Wade, who migrated to the US, where he gambled on finding oil wells, has returned to his roots with a mission to discover oil around 1928, when witchbroom is destroying cocoa. Before the devastating disease, Trinidad had been the third-largest cocoa producer in the world, producing 20 per cent of the world’s cocoa.
Oil is a dangerous business that suits Eddie’s adventurous nature and penchant for courting danger in work and his personal life. Now, like Apex and other oil companies, Eddie pursues Sonny Chatterjee, a failing cocoa farmer rooted in tradition, and his father’s cocoa plantation. Sonny’s land oozes oil.
Fortune by Amanda Smyth -
The best books make the most difficult subjects for reviews. Almost anything said about the book feels like divulging secrets, and Fortune, Amanda Smyth’s latest novel, has secrets at every turn.
This we know for sure: Trinidadian-born Eddie Wade, who migrated to the US, where he gambled on finding oil wells, has returned to his roots with a mission to discover oil around 1928, when witchbroom is destroying cocoa. Before the devastating disease, Trinidad had been the third-largest cocoa producer in the world, producing 20 per cent of the world’s cocoa.
Oil is a dangerous business that suits Eddie’s adventurous nature and penchant for courting danger in work and his personal life. Now, like Apex and other oil companies, Eddie pursues Sonny Chatterjee, a failing cocoa farmer rooted in tradition, and his father’s cocoa plantation. Sonny’s land oozes oil.