Sometimes it’s the less pleasant moments in life that change your life.

Perhaps not straight away. But they stay with you, and sometimes something completely different emerges from the experience and the pain. Something unexpected. In my case, it was the idea for a book.

Many, many years ago, I was in a relationship with a young woman from the neighbouring village for quite some time. After we eventually split up, she was involved in a fatal car accident shortly afterwards. The following night, I had a dream that has haunted me to this day and burned an image into my mind: a very specific place. Over time, and together with a few other coincidences and events, the dream and the image in my mind formed the rough framework for a story. Because I knew that somehow I had to find this place, one thing led to another. A journey took me to Porto. And in Porto, I found myself sitting by the River Douro, and in the light of the fading day, many things suddenly came together to form a story that I would like to tell. Even if it is just for myself