Second Chance In The Hague by David Kintore

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Second Chance In The Hague by David Kintore

‘Three miles away at Scheveningen the grey beach was bleak, unvisited, the daylight fading. It was getting colder.

Why linger? There was nothing out there but the cold North Sea stroking the land. In the town there would be bustle, conversation, connections, chances to not be alone.’

Stefan owns a moderately successful art gallery in The Hague, passing his days in a comfortable but spiritless rut.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 252
Publisher: Dalmerino Press

Freelance journalist Anna has quit her corporate job in search of something more fulfilling.

Art school student Nikki works part-time at Stefan’s gallery and hopes for a breakthrough exhibition; her student friends Petra and Suzanna have the same hope but things are not going their way.

Established local artist Matthijs reaches a turning point in his fifties.

Second chances come and go, but will they be taken?

David Kintore’s beguiling debut novel brings together a cast of characters navigating their way through the art world – breaking in, struggling, thriving, drifting.

My Review

If like me you are an avid reader of crime fiction, you will probably be waiting for the first murder to take place. But this is not that type of book. It’s a gentle story that takes place over a number of years and follows the lives of eight people, none of whom I wanted to murder.

Stefan is a gallery owner in The Hague, relatively successful, divorced, and frankly, rather bored with his life. Anna is a journalist (half English, half Italian) who lives in Amsterdam and has recently gone freelance. She had been commissioned to write an article about the thriving art scene in The Hague, and that is how she meets Stefan.

Nikki is an art student of huge talent whose paintings attract the attention of Japanese art collectors Shinju and Yukiko who visit Stefan’s gallery on a European tour. The couple are really minor characters, but we do follow them throughout the book.

Petra and Suzanna are also art students, but they are not attracting the same attention as Nikki. They paint together, which causes problems at the university, as they want to enter a joint picture for the final graduate degree show.

And finally we have Matthijs, who is both an artist and a teacher at the college where the three young women are students. He is having a mid-life crisis in his late fifties, because his career seems to have stalled and he isn’t sure where to go with it.

The book teaches us a lot about the art world, but also about Dutch culture and food. Look away if you (like me) are vegetarian, as there are a lot of rabbit and pork dishes being consumed. It’s a great insight into life in another country, and we also spend some time in Tokyo and Brussels.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #SecondChanceInTheHague blog tour.

About the Author

David Kintore was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up in York, England. He is the author of the non-fiction series of ‘Silver Screen Cities’ books, celebrating cinema-going in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Lisbon. His debut novel, ‘Second Chance in The Hague’, is out now.