Beneath the Thousand Stars

Jan De Witte is a thirty-eight-year-old textile conservator who spends his days repairing fragile, historic fabrics. But after the quiet collapse of a nineteen-year relationship, it is his own life that is coming undone. Looking for a fresh start, he moves into a stunning nineteenth-century Antwerp flat with a charming Italian-Belgian architect named Luca. It is a highly sensible, practical decision-until Jan accidentally falls in love with a man who is already happily taken.Beneath The Thousand Stars is not a traditional romance. Born directly from the author's own real-life grief and heartbreak, it is an excruciating, beautiful portrait of surviving the messy aftermath of a long love.Through frantic, fourth-wall-breaking confessions directly to you, the "Reader," and the fiercely protective, clinical perspective of his best friend, Saskia, Jan navigates the humiliating choreography of being the third wheel in his own home. Against the brooding, slate-grey backdrop of Antwerp, anchored by a shared moka pot, a stoic seven-year-old Monstera plant named Hendrik, and the meditative metaphors of mending antique linen, Jan must undertake the slowest, hardest repair of all: learning how to be good company to himself.A story about the pain of proximity, the relief of letting go, and the quiet triumph of walking under the stars alone.

Pages: 351, Paperback, Independently published