What a stunning writer Jane Harris is, mastering an extremely harrowing and complex subject and making it into art.'-Amanda Craig, author of In a Dark Wood 'With a narrator so enthralling he brings to mind Melville's Ishmael, Sugar Money takes readers on a journey into the heart of a Caribbean slave. Like Stevenson, she describes an exotic setting and tells a ripping good story….A quite good book with wide appeal.' - Library Journal (Starred) 'Draws on an obscure historical event to craft an affecting account of a young boy’s coming-of-age.…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.'- Publishers Weekly 'A vivid, perfectly paced tale of slavery and freedom, innocence and experience, love and despair, Sugar Money is told in an unforgettably beautiful language. 'Harris develops a marvelously harrowing, thrillingly picaresque tale of two brothers, Emile and Lucien, and their journey into the heart of darkness.'- The New York Times Book Review 'Harris credits Robert Louis Stevenson as inspiration for this book. 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. 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.Īward-winning author Jane Harris peoples her daring novel, based on a historical rebellion, with unforgettable characters.

Seven years earlier-after a series of scandals-they were ousted from Grenada by the French authorities, and had to leave their slaves behind. The monks run hospitals in the islands and fund their ventures through farming cane sugar and distilling rum. ***SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION and THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE*** For Readers of The Yellow Crocus and The Underground Railroad, a Poignant Novel Inspired by a True Story about the Heroism of Two Enslaved Brothers Sent to Steal Slaves from the British in Grenada and the Tragic Results of this Doomed Mission 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.

Sugar Money by Jane Harris