Tragödchen-Band (Photo: private)
Ratingen. On Thursday, September 5th, the Tragödchen cabaret stage invited the writer Patrick van Odijk to the book café Peter & Paula at Grütstraße 3-7. Together with Tragödchen director Bernhard Schultz, he will read from his new book “The False Vermeer” from 8 p.m. The Tragödchen band will provide the music.
The novel is set in the post-war period in the Dutch metropolis of Amsterdam. The war is over and the time for reckoning has begun: who was a resistance fighter, who was a collaborator? The painter Jan van Aelst is one of the latter. He is said to have sold an important work by the artist Vermeer to Hermann Göring, and is now in prison for it and awaiting trial. But behind the apparently clear-cut case lies a scandal which, if uncovered, would have serious consequences for the entire Dutch art scene. The young reporter Meg van Hettema gets to the bottom of the matter and stumbles upon countless lies. Is the expensively sold Vermeer painting just a fake? And has van Aelst forged other paintings?
Patrick van Odijk has processed the true events surrounding the forger Han van Meegeren (1889-1947) into a captivating story and thus presents a multi-layered portrait of a turbulent time.
He himself grew up bilingually in Germany as a Dutchman. He studied political science, history and German at the University of Konstanz. He then worked as a radio reporter, editor and presenter for public broadcasting in Germany.
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