Coffee, Madam?

Coffee, Madam?

Apparently, coffee is very good for writers.

It provides cognitive enhancement, meaning that it aids in processing ideas a little faster. And here I thought all those writers sitting in coffee shops were like me, just escaping my own four walls.

Like T. S. Eliot's Prufrock, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

Coffee’s appearances in fiction are too many to catalogue. The way a character prepares or drinks coffee can show a lot about them, or it can simply be the backdrop for a conversation.

But though its appearances are legion, works in which coffee plays a central role are few. Agatha Christie's Black Coffee teases with its title, but the bitter drink turns out simply to be the vehicle for the poisoning Hercule Poirot must exercise his little grey cells to solve.

I have, though, enjoyed a couple of titles that I thought I might pass on. And I’d appreciate your recommendations...

The Coffee Trader by David Liss

I preferred this American writer’s first novel, A Conspiracy of Paper, but if you’re looking for a thrilling depiction of the cutthroat coffee trade in 17th century Amsterdam, with meticulous historical detail and a complex narrative, you’ll enjoy this one.

The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella

It’s London, 1895. Impoverished poet Robert Wallis is offered a job by coffee merchant Samuel Pinker — employ his palate and talent for words to compose a vocabulary of coffee based on its many subtle and elusive flavours. The fireworks begin when he encounters Pinker’s free-thinking daughters.

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Painting: "Coffee" (Yana Khlyebnikova)