First novel of this relatively unknown Dutch writer. In this novel Vd Brink writes about an imaginary affair between the Catalan writer Pla and his muse Aurora.

Pla is not in any way sympathetic – he choses the easy way out of the Spanish civil war, practising victim blame on those who do make a morally superior choice. Pla is an old, grumpy man, who cannot even cook or produce anything, except some duplicitous writings. And yet. Pla does get close to the essence of life with his emphasis on food and lust, the only two matters that count in one’s life. Aurora basically joins Pla is his home, when she and her family are facing the aftermath of the Spanish civil war and need a protector. She enters a period of five years of continuous seduction of the writer. Their lustful interaction is not described explicitly, only hinted at and yet it does create an erotic suspense that only few writers manage to create.

In the novel Pla is travelling by boat via Venezuela to Buenos Aires, where Aurora has set up shop after she left him. Pla laments his desire, something he suspects has to do with love. He longs for her. In all the years since she left him, she has been writing explicit letters about her own love life and lust feelings for him. Pla has paid her to write these letters, and this steady source of income has made the difference in Aurora’s life. When he arrives, it becomes clear that Aurora stays in a wooden house she has constructed jointly with her fat, but good-natured husband Carnicero.

Brink alternates a third person POV between Pla and Aurora. Thus we get an idea of the small irritations and projections that they commit to each other. Also we find out how Carnicero has played a key role in helping Aurora develop her crude, pornographic writing skills. Carnicero seems like a friendly cuck-old, who does not mind Pla and Aurora engaging in daily lust trysts. Meanwhile Pla wonders whether he has love with her or with an imagined younger Aurora? Does he imagine himself the way he was, or the way he is (a near seventy year old in a body that is despicable). After a flash flood and heavy downpour, Pla and Carnicero work hard to restore the house, and Pla leaves, going back to Catalonia. The last chapter sees Pla shuffling to the beach from his mansion on the coast. ( )