In a very short space of time Geert Broertjes lost the most important women in his life: his aunt, his grandmother and his mother all died. He shared his grief with his girlfriend, who became a recurring presence in the work. He recorded the process instinctively, and only afterwards noticed its coherence: it became a poetic story about love, loss and grief, and the raw black and white reveals the dark feelings of an intense period.

“As I put the finishing touches to this book, my father has been diagnosed with cancer for the third time. And before I have had time to take in the news, I myself have to be admitted urgently to hospital. While the specialists discuss my case, I feel the sensation of leaving my body, and from above I observe the scene below, which seems to have nothing to do with me. First my father and then my mother; and now I too have been struck by the illness in its hereditary form.”