Slavery in spice island

A vivid tale of slavery, innocence, love, despair and freedom is narrated in an unforgettable language, as Jane Harris’s third novel  based on true story, drills deep into the past. It is a story of slavery masked by a boisterous adventure.

The year is 1765, and the voice of Lucien a “mulatto” slave who is about fourteen has been brought over to Martinique from his native Grenada.

Brothers Emile and Lucien are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back 42 slaves claimed by English invaders at the hospital plantation in Fort Royal. Sensing the possibility of finding his first love Celeste- he sets out with his brother on this “reckless venture”.

Following various scandals, the French Caribbean authorities in Grenada expelled a motley group of mendicant monks, who fled the island so quickly that they left everything behinds, including a number of enslaved people who worked on the estate. The French authorities who took over the hospital and plantation,  was invaded in a few years by the British and assumed control of the island. Meanwhile poverty stricken monks had returned to their sister hospital under the looming active volcano, Mont Pelee, in Martinique where they planned to build a distillery. In 1765, the frustrated monks in Martinique hatched a plan, when they tasked an enslaved man  named Mulatto to travel to Grenada and steal the enslaved human chattels from under the noses of the enemy.

For many years Jane Harris was drawn to Grenada “ The Spice Island”, but because she did not like flying and as a struggling writer of short stories her income was too low to fund a lavish Grenadian trip.

Celeste, one of the enslaved people they set out to rescue, becomes a story of love and courage of sibling love and rivalry , all in the face of the impossible odds and inhumane savagery behind the transatlantic slave trade.

Jane Harris was born in Belfast and grew up in Scotland before moving to England in her early 20s. Her first book  The Observations was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007. Her second novel Gillespie was shortlisted for the National Book Awards in 2011 and the Scottish Book awards in 2012.

Sugar Money by Jane Harris published by Faber & Faber  Hardback £14.99, 400 pages.