Goena-Goena: Oorspronkelijke roman

Charles Prédier strides out of the notary’s office with a satisfied smile, his pocket‑book pressed to his chest like a talisman. He has just secured the financing for a bold coffee venture in the Dutch East Indies, a project that promises to turn the fertile plains into a thriving gold‑mine of profit. The notary, Bronkhorst, watches the numbers flicker in his mind, half‑optimistic yet wary of the sudden influx of wealth that is reshaping the landscape.

Around them, the once‑quiet rice fields have given way to rows of sugarcane, smokestacks, and the clatter of railway tracks that cut through the horizon. Merchants from China and Arabia set up stalls near the station, while opium dens and gambling houses hint at the darker side of progress. In the modest household of the notary, his wife listens half‑heartedly to the plans, her simple, foreign tongue barely grasping the magnitude of the enterprise.

As the colony buzzes with the promise of riches, the story follows the uneasy balance between ambition and the reality of a world in transition, inviting listeners to witness the early stirrings of a venture that could change everything for those who dare to invest.