The Cost of Sugar is the successful debut of Suriname’s most celebrated historical novelist, Cynthia McLeod. First published in 1987, the novel sold 100,000 copies.
In an engrossing historical account, Cynthia McLeod takes her readers back to the 18th century (between 1765-1779) recapping the intriguing history of those rabid times through the eyes of two Jewish step sisters, Elza and Sarith, descendants of the settlers of ‘New Jerusalem of the River’, know today as Jodensavanne, the oldest Jewish settlement in Surinam, which boasts the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.
The Cost of Sugar is a frank exposé of life in the Dutch slave colony when sugar ruled as king – and the tragic toll it took on the lives of colonist and slaves alike.
Translated from the Dutch by Gerald R Mettam
In an engrossing historical account, Cynthia McLeod takes her readers back to the 18th century (between 1765-1779) recapping the intriguing history of those rabid times through the eyes of two Jewish step sisters, Elza and Sarith, descendants of the settlers of ‘New Jerusalem of the River’, know today as Jodensavanne, the oldest Jewish settlement in Surinam, which boasts the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.
The Cost of Sugar is a frank exposé of life in the Dutch slave colony when sugar ruled as king – and the tragic toll it took on the lives of colonist and slaves alike.
Translated from the Dutch by Gerald R Mettam