UNDERNEATH THE BALDACHIN

What happens when a beautiful, real world is replaced by a world of illusion?
In the small riverside town of The Shield, life still seems untouched by the ambitions of the modern world.
Every summer, young students gather by the river to discuss the great questions of human existence-freedom, love, faith, society, and the meaning of life. Among them are David, Filip, Jonathan, and Patricia.
Nearby, in an ancient watermill, lives a mysterious old man from the East. When David and Filip visit him, they discover that he is hiding an immensely wealthy man with a dangerous vision: to buy The Shield, destroy its natural way of life, and replace it with a vast film studio-an artificially created world of images, spectacle, and illusion.
What begins as a struggle for one small town grows into a conflict between two visions of human existence: an authentic world of nature, friendship, and human connection versus a world in which reality itself can be bought and reinvented.
For David, the consequences will be devastating.
His journey will eventually take him from the Sahara, along the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, and all the way to New York, where he meets an unexpected young, highly educated African American man who has deliberately chosen a life as a homeless person, disillusioned with life and the world around him. This encounter forces David to question everything he once believed about wealth, freedom, faith, society, and happiness.
And in the end, one question remains:
If the world has lost its way, what can still save it? In his opinion, there is one thing that still can: LOVE.
UNDERNEATH THE BALDACHIN is a philosophical literary novel about illusion and reality, nature and modernity, loss and renewal, spiritual searching, and the enduring human need for love and meaning.