Sugar Money

Harris (Gillespie and I) draws on an obscure historical event to craft an affecting account of a young boy’s coming-of-age. The story is narrated by Lucien, a slave “thirteen or fourteen years old” working on Martinique, who has already been taught by life to always expect the worst. In 1765, he and his brother, Emile, who’s more than twice his age, are summoned by Father Cléophas, a mendicant friar, to carry out a perilous mission on Grenada, where Lucien was born. After making a routine delivery, the siblings are to retrieve about 40 slaves who once belonged to the Martinique friars but now work at a hospital there and on the plantation whose proceeds support the hospital’s work. Cléophas claims that the assignment has the approval of Grenada’s English governor, but cautions that the Englishmen running the hospital dispute the friars’ claims of ownership. Lucien and Emile undertake the venture, which, unsurprisingly, does not go smoothly. Harris makes the most of her choice to portray the cruelties of slavery through the eyes of a young lead, a decision that pays off handsomely by the moving conclusion. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Mar.)