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Sign up todayBold Ventures
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Learn moreA prize-winning Belgian poet explores the nature of creative endeavor—the godlike ambition, the crushing defeat of failure—through the stories of thirteen tragic architects.
In thirteen fascinating chapters, Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal to their architects—architects who either killed themselves or are rumored to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire in seventeenth-century France to a theater that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC, and an eerily sinking swimming pool in the author's hometown. Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Darwin to art history, stories from her own life, and popular culture, Van den Broeck brings patterns into focus as she asks, What is that strange, life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator?
Threaded through each story is the author's meditation on the question of suicide—what Albert Camus called the "one truly serious philosophical problem"—in relation to creativity and public disgrace. The result is a profoundly idiosyncratic book, breaking ground in literary nonfiction, as well as providing solace and consolation to anyone who has ever attempted a creative act.
Charlotte Van den Broeck is a Belgian author. Her first collection of poetry, Chameleon, was awarded the Herman de Coninck Debut Prize. For her second, Nachtroer, she received the triannual Paul Snoek Prize for the best collection of poetry in Dutch. Her poetry has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Afrikaans, Serbian, and English. Bold Ventures was a Dutch bestseller, won the Confituur Boekhandels Prize and the Dr. Wijnaendts Francken Prize, and was short-listed for the Boekenbon Literature Prize and the Jan Hanlo Essay Prize.
Gail Shalan is a storyteller based in New York City. She has narrated books for Tantor, HighBridge, Blackstone, Chatterbox Audio with Audible UK, Spoken Realms, and more. She is also a narrator and producer on The StoryLight Podcast (available wherever you listen to podcasts). She holds an MFA in acting from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has worked in both the US and UK in theater, film, and voice-over. Gail is also a puppeteer and one half of the International folk duo The Strange Bedfellows.
David McKay's translation work has been described as "dazzlingly lyrical" (Neel Mukherjee, The Guardian). He received the Vondel Prize for his translation of War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, which was also nominated for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize and short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award.
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