Edward Hendriks
We had to wait 6 years for it, but now there is Ferrara, the sequel to Ventoux by Bert Wagendorp. The good news is that the friends Joost, David, André and Bart (the I-figure) in this book do not travel to France but to Italy.
Ferrara takes place 5 years after Ventoux off. The friends meet in the northern Italian city of Ferrara, where Joost has a dilapidated Palazzo has bought. Joost's plan is to convert it into a design hotel and thus build a new life in Italy. Where have we heard that before?
Anyway, friends wouldn't be friends if they didn't help with this venture. Of course they soon realize that renovating is an art in itself.
A novel about friendship
Ferrara is a novel about friendship, aging and letting go. It's about the inevitable finiteness of life. But also about enjoying it while you still can.
In this book the four friends are all confronted with their own transience. But luckily there is always that friendship. The friendship that has always been there, even though they had lost touch for years. A real male friendship, which comes about because men spend time together, not because they talk to each other so much.
The exciting element is that Bart's daughter, Anna, is now doing dangerous work in a war zone. When they don't hear from her for a few days and there are reports that journalists have been kidnapped in Syria, Bart becomes afraid that something bad has happened. And what is the matter with that mysterious fisherman Perotto?
Ferrari has become a beautifully readable book that provides a nice atmospheric drawing of a male friendship and starting a new adventure in Italy. Nice to dream away when you spend a holiday in Italy.
Ferrara
by: Bert Wagendorp
256 pages
€ 22,50 (also available as an e-book for € 14,99)
Pluim Publishers, May 2019
ISBN 9789492928252
Comments