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.

'A thrilling Shakespearean tragedy of a story, about love, lust, ambition, destiny, and human frailty'. Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2022

About the Author
Amanda Smyth is Irish Trinidadian, and author of three novels. Fortune (2021) was shortlisted for the James Taitt Black Prize, and Black Rock, won the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger. An Oprah Winfrey Summer Read, and Waterstones New Voice, she has been nominated for an NAACP award and shortlisted for McKitterick Prize. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in New Writing, London Magazine, The Times Literary Supplement, Harvard Review and BBC Radio 4.

Reviews

"Based on a real-life tragedy, Fortune is a magnificently absorbing tale of passion, greed and the misplaced energies that cause environmental as well as personal ruin."
The Guardian

"Fortune is a fascinating portrait of Trinidad, an island that is beautiful but poor, troubled and full of danger. Amanda Smyth builds the love-triangle tension with patient skill."
The Times

Book Information
ISBN 9781845235192
Author Amanda Smyth
Format Paperback
Page Count 266
Imprint Peepal Tree Press Ltd
Publisher Peepal Tree Press Ltd