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Centrum : a novel concerning Amsterdam
A dark and strange allegorical novel, set in Amsterdam, Centrum's subject is the presence of the past and its effect on our lives in the present day.
In Centrum - the old city, the heart of Amsterdam, the year 2000 is drawing to a close. Despite the cars and the electric lights it is still a 17th century city, preserved in time's aspic.
Historian Alex Gray is here to study the architecture of the magnificent canal houses. At first, meeting the beautiful Johanna seems like an unexpected bonus. Until he gets to know her a little better, and discovers she isn't the kind of girl you take home to meet your mother.
She doesn't really belong here, and she has a proposition. It's really nothing new.
In fact it's as old as time.
The Last Day is near, the day when a child will be born who will change everything. If he survives. There are those who will do anything to make sure he doesn't, but they need some help, and it seems that Alex has been chosen.
In Centrum - the old city, the heart of Amsterdam, the year 2000 is drawing to a close. Despite the cars and the electric lights it is still a 17th century city, preserved in time's aspic.
Historian Alex Gray is here to study the architecture of the magnificent canal houses. At first, meeting the beautiful Johanna seems like an unexpected bonus. Until he gets to know her a little better, and discovers she isn't the kind of girl you take home to meet your mother.
She doesn't really belong here, and she has a proposition. It's really nothing new.
In fact it's as old as time.
The Last Day is near, the day when a child will be born who will change everything. If he survives. There are those who will do anything to make sure he doesn't, but they need some help, and it seems that Alex has been chosen.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2011
About the author
Christopher Rae
16 books5 followersChristopher Rae was born in Glasgow, but having arrived in Yorkshire at the age of 5, after a detour via London, feels justified in claiming to be a native. A first degree in History from the University of Sussex was forgotten for a number of years while he pursued a career at the bleeding edge of information technology, but now provides the experience and knowledge behind the exhaustive research which underpins his writing.
Whether it is the 15th century, or the 17th, Christopher's writing seeks to evoke a sense of period which is both fascinating and compelling for the reader.
'To some people the attempt to "fill in the gaps in the sparsely chronicled past", as Schama described it, is folly. But for others it is an essential component of the civilised mind's struggle to understand the world, for if we cannot understand the past we can never hope to understand the present. These people understand very well the difference between a work of history and a work of historical fiction, but also understand the light that can be shed on the dry bones of the historical account by the judicious use of an imaginative hypothesis.'
Whether it is the 15th century, or the 17th, Christopher's writing seeks to evoke a sense of period which is both fascinating and compelling for the reader.
'To some people the attempt to "fill in the gaps in the sparsely chronicled past", as Schama described it, is folly. But for others it is an essential component of the civilised mind's struggle to understand the world, for if we cannot understand the past we can never hope to understand the present. These people understand very well the difference between a work of history and a work of historical fiction, but also understand the light that can be shed on the dry bones of the historical account by the judicious use of an imaginative hypothesis.'
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