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A FEEL-GOOD NOVEL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP, ROMANCE, INTRIGUE, AND TREACHERY. AND CYCLING.
During the summer of 1982, a group of friends—five boys and one girl—travel to French Provence to climb the legendary Mont Ventoux on their bicycles. A tragic accident claims the life of one of them, the promising young poet, Peter. Thirty years later, the old friends return to conquer the mountain and the demons of their past. Ventoux is both a hilarious and insightful portrait of a generation and a stunningly accurate depiction of male friendship. While cycling aficionados will enjoy recognizing the mountain as the scene of many classic races, Ventoux is much more—a glorious tragicomedy and homage to the importance of lifelong companionship.
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Praise for Ventoux
‘Where the novel succeeds most is in its wonderful blend of humor, suspense and poignancy, which will appeal to non-cyclists as well as those of us who understand what it takes to scale a mountain as evocative, daunting and symbolic as Mont Ventoux’
FELIX LOWE, author of Climbs & Punishment
‘Wagendorp’s book manages to be funny, shrewd and moving, with a complex structure that never feels cumbersome, and a finale so intense that you want to read it very slowly, almost one word at a time’
The Guardian
‘Bert Wagendorp keeps his readers firmly in tow in this glorious tragicomedy about friendship’
De Morgen
‘Hilarious, stirring, feel-good’
NRC Handelsblad
‘Takes in the nature of friendship, musings on the nature of time, and the small choices we make that can change our lives; very funny, and often very touching’
Cyclo
‘Twists, unforeseen developments, and heart-breaking truths; the plot is peppered with moments that urge you to read on’
Life in the Saddle
‘A touching and well-crafted novel about friendship and life, that’s also got some bikes in it’
Road.cc
‘Within the main story, there are plenty more relatable sub-plots woven in: of personal journeys, triumphs, of tragedies, humor, success and of disaster—and of course, of cycling. It’s a novel which grips you, it’s a novel which makes you think, and it’s a novel which makes you reflect on your own choices. And it is a novel well worth reading’
Road Cycling UK
‘Ventoux is a stunningly accurate depiction of male friendship told in a subtle and sensitive style. This feel-good novel about old friends who find their way back to each other is a delightful and easy read. Especially recommended for cycling aficionados who will recognize Mont Ventoux as the scene of many classic races through the years’
Battle Books
‘Instantly likeable, the heady mix of angst in Wagendorp’s characters, and their love of cycling and music coupled with a desire to leave lasting, revered legacies instantly resonated’
Seven Day Cyclist
‘A fictional cycling story with camaraderie, romance, love, intrigue and treachery. Quite brilliant!’
The Bike Lane
‘Ventoux is so convincingly written that contrivance is a factor that never once rears its potentially ugly head. The characters are thoroughly and naturally believable, as are their various interactions, while the book’s 285 pages provide compulsive reading from page one’
The Washing Machine Post
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BERT WAGENDORP (1956) is a columnist for the national newspaper De Volkskrant. His novel Ventoux was proclaimed Book of the Month by a leading Dutch booksellers panel and received unanimous rave reviews from the press, selling 100,000 copies within the first six months. The book has been adapted into a Dutch-language film of the same name. Wagendorp previously wrote the collection of stories De Dubbele Schaar (‘The Double Scissors’) and the novella De Proloog (‘The Prologue’).
PAUL VINCENT (UK) studied at Cambridge and Amsterdam, and after teaching Dutch at the University of London for over twenty years became a full-time translator in 1989. Since then he has published a wide variety of translated poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, including work by Achterberg, Claus, Couperus, Elsschot, Jellema, Mulisch, De Moor, and Van den Brink. He is a member of the Society of Dutch Literature in Leiden, and has won the Reid Prize for poetry translation, the Vondel Prize for Dutch-English translation, and (jointly) the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize.
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AUTHOR
‘I am a cycling aficionado, both actively and passively. I started my career in journalism as a cycling reporter—I covered the Tour de France six times. It’s no coincidence that the main character in Ventoux has some things in common with the author; he studied literature (as I did), then went on to become a sports writer. He buys a bike in his forties (as I did), and has a daughter by the name of Anna (mine is called Hannah). But I have never seen Ventoux as a novel about cycling; the friends use cycling the same way as I do myself: as a way of bonding, communicating.’
TRANSLATOR
‘As a translator, my task was to try to do justice to the lively, effective narration in this story of friendship, love, coming of age, and physical challenges—all in the shadow of the intimidating mass of Mont Ventoux.’
PUBLISHER
‘Bert Wagendorp knows how to tell a good story. Ventoux is a wonderful book about a bunch of friends who need to come to terms with a dreadful event from their past. I strongly recommend it to men who love biking and/or a good read, and to women who want to understand more about the nature of male friendship.’
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Bert Wagendorp
VENTOUX
Translated from the Dutch
by Paul Vincent
WORLD EDITIONS
New York, London, Amsterdam
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Published in the USA in 2019 by World Editions LLC, New York
Published in the UK in 2015 by World Editions Ltd., London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Bert Wagendorp, 2013
English translation copyright © Paul Vincent, 2015
Author’s portrait © Jelmer de Haas
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data is available
ISBN Trade paperback 978-1-64286-017-7
ISBN E-book 978-1-64286-036-8
First published as Ventoux in the Netherlands in 2013 by Atlas Contact, Amsterdam
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Twitter: @WorldEdBooks