A man lives on a desert island, where one day he finds a map in a bottle with the words: ‘Find the treasure.’ He does not really want to leave his island, as he is having a fine time on his own. However, he builds a boat and sails away and meets the woman of his dreams, but still he keeps on looking for the treasure. He searches and searches — and eventually realizes that he has already found what he wants.

Do not underestimate bronze. Bronze was revolutionary in the history of humankind: this alloy of copper and tin was the first metal from which tools were made with no other purpose than to wound. The result was war. The trade in bronze also led to great wealth for the first time. And, writes the archaeologist and author Linda Dielemans in her first non-fiction book, bronze axes were universal carriers of information, ‘the maps of the Bronze Age’.

For this work of magical realism, Sjoerd Kuyper found inspiration on the island of Curaçao. He organised his thoughts in emails to his children, with songs, a monologue, a newspaper article. That was how the form of the book came about: ‘a love letter to the island of Curaçao, in 25 genres,’ as one reviewer wrote.