Arabian Wine

Venice, 1609. Matteo Benveneto, younger son of a merchant family, has plans to revive the waning fortunes of the great trading city by introducing Venetians and Europeans to an exotic drink from the highlands of Arabia and the cities of the East: caofa, or coffee. His friend Gaspare Treviso has ideas for steam-powered engines that offer the prospect of military advantage against the Turks and immediate practical benefits in pumping the leaky cellars of government buildings. A novel of coffee, ideas, and ambition, Arabian Wine offers a lush, erudite, and sensual glimpse of a culture bound by tradition and poised on the edge of explosive cultural and technological change.Published in an edition of 300 copies, signed by the author