Description

‘Bold Ventures resembles a pop version of Iain Sinclair’s psychogeography or Out of Sheer Rage, Geoff Dyer’s anti-biography of DH Lawrence’ Olivia Laing, GUARDIAN

‘A marvel: a monument to human beings continuing to reach for the skies, even after their plans dissolve in dust’ NEW YORK TIMES

In thirteen chapters, Belgian poet Charlotte Van den Broeck goes in search of buildings that were fatal for their architects – architects who either killed themselves or are rumoured to have done so. They range across time and space from a church with a twisted spire built in seventeenth-century France to a theatre that collapsed mid-performance in 1920s Washington, DC., and an eerily sinking swimming pool in her hometown of Turnhout.

Drawing on a vast range of material, from Hegel and Charles Darwin to art history, stories from her own life and popular culture, patterns gradually come into focus, as Van den Broeck asks: what is that strange life-or-death connection between a creation and its creator?

Threaded through each story, and in prose of great essayistic subtlety, Van den Broeck meditates 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 new ground in literary non-fiction, as well as providing solace and consolation – and a note of caution – to anyone who has ever risked their hand at a creative act.

‘What a sensible, intelligent and beautiful book’ Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine

Publisher Review

What a sensible, intelligent and beautiful book -- Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine A darkly comic meditation on the nature of creativity and the narrow margins between triumph and despair. Part memoir, part travelogue and part reflection, this unique and hugely engaging book takes a fresh look at the tragicomic condition of being human -- Carolyn Steel, author of Sitopia While going on essayistic quests that take her around the globe, Van den Broeck traces stories of self-complacency, fear of failure and destiny. Indirectly, she researches the link between building and writing. Isn't every author bold by default, after all? In Bold Ventures she lives up to her ambition * De Morgen * Van den Broeck has a very keen eye. But she also has a great mind, making transitions between philosophical contemplations and journalistic passages seem effortless * De Standaard *