Novel
The Cost of Sugar
Hoe duur was de suiker
Cynthia McLeod · 1987
Synopsis
In the mid-eighteenth century, in the sugar colony, two daughters of Jewish planters raised together, Sarith and Elza, grow into young women who are complete opposites: Sarith, beautiful, capricious and eager for attention, treats the slaves harshly; Elza, more self-effacing and loyal, remains attached to the servants who watched her grow up. Marriages, parties, affairs and jealousies mark life on the plantations, while the administrator Rutger le Chasseur is outraged by the fate of the slaves and Boni's Maroons, who have taken refuge in the forest, begin to attack the estates.
Context
Published in Paramaribo by the Vaco publishing house, the first print run sold out within a few weeks and made the author the best-known novelist in the country; the book has gone through some thirty-seven reissues. Its title comes from a poem by Corly Verlooghen. Michiel van Kempen reproached it in 1993 for a tone close to mass-market fiction and a careless edition, but noted that no novel had yet given such a place to the Jews in the history of Suriname. Translated into English, Portuguese, German and Italian, it was adapted for the screen in 2013.
Who it is for
For those who like great historical sagas and want to learn about the society of the plantations of Suriname in the eighteenth century.
Prizes and reception
Sold out within a few weeks and then reprinted more than thirty times, it was adapted for the cinema in 2013.