THE BRIDGE TO REMBRANDT

In this debut novel, a modern Amsterdam man gets repeatedly thrown back in time to earlier eras in the Netherlands and to different incarnations of an enticing woman.

Robert Dekker is an Amsterdam resident living a semi-bohemian life in 2019 as a concert planner who’s often away on entertainment business, to the detriment of his dull marriage. A side enterprise that markets Chinese-made reproductions of classic paintings has run into a potentially ruinous lawsuit, and now his exciting mistress, Saskia, tells him she’s finding their relationship stale and may want to make a change. In this troubled state of mind, Robert drives on a bridge over the Brouwersgracht Canal and mysteriously finds himself cast back three crucial years in the past, to 2016. Now, Robert has a second chance to begin (or not) his relationship with Saskia more meaningfully and perhaps avoid other future pitfalls. Film fans, meanwhile, may detect similarities to such time-twisted romances as Groundhog Day, Sliding Doors, Mr. Destiny, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Twice Upon a Yesterday(though the only one referenced repeatedly in the text is Back to the Future). But Foley, a transplanted Englishman living in the Netherlands, expands the concept. With clear, businesslike prose, the author relates his unstuck-in-time hero’s slipping ever further back in Dutch history (it is telegraphed that Rembrandt will be involved), encountering different iterations of Saskia. In addition to awkward reintroductions, Robert uses his knowledge of past events to stay out of harm’s way and—if possible—extend his limited supply of insulin for the life-threatening diabetes that afflicts him. Although a few key plot threads seem to be introduced but then lead nowhere (one concerns Robert’s being able to diagnose Saskia’s impending breast cancer years in advance), the overall result is an extremely readable, intelligent, and entertaining work of paranormal fiction. The story has a built-in appeal for consumers of Diana Gabaldon’s blockbuster bodice- and kilt-ripper Outlander franchise as well as readers of time-trippy adventures who would not normally browse any novel in a bookstore’s romance section. Extra points will be awarded by aficionados of Dutch history who are interested in armchair Amsterdam travel, temporal or otherwise.

An entertaining yarn about time travel, infidelity, and art, executed with sure brush strokes.