6 The best stories are the ones that have heroes. Yet not every hero is favored by fortune... The Black Gemstone – a new series of highly thrilling and breathtaking stories about a mysterious jewel starts with this novel which takes place in Amsterdam in the 18th century.
© HR Schulz
»I am telling you the story as a token of my appreciation,« said d’Ennery, »just as I received the gemstone as a token of appreciation. My lady gave it to me for my loyal service to her. (…) I had it embedded in the pommel by a jeweler. For a musketeer, Luuk, would rather lose his life than his sword.«
Wieland Freund, born in 1969 in
Paderborn, is an author, reviewer and journalist. For his first children’s books Lisas Book (2003) and Song of a Ghost (2004) he received the Bavarian Art Promotion Prize. Together with his family he lives in Berlin. Jonas Nothing is his first children’s book he published with Beltz & Gelberg.
Luuk’s life turns topsy-turvy after encountering d’Ennery, the elegant musketeer. The fine gemstone in the hilt of the musketeer’s sword magically attracts him and strangely enough, it looks like the scar on his forearm. However d’Ennery has other worries: he is supposed to get a hold of the Semper Idem, the fancy three-colored tulip that is so rare that hardly anyone has seen it. D’Ennery finds the precious flower, but then his luck disappears and he loses it again – just like that. Now he wants to fetch it back in Amsterdam, but there are others whose attention has been caught by the noble flower. A battle unfolds in which Luuk does not always act cleverly and falls from the wall, while d’Ennery again loses something important and Luuk touches the gemstone for the first time.