INTERIM by Ben van Praag

Thomas Verbelen is obsessed with the past. While researching seventeenth-century parish records, he discovers the name of Anna Boel, a young woman from Hamme whose existence appears to have been deliberately erased. The deeper Thomas digs, the more the documents seem to contradict history, until his investigation pulls him across four centuries and into Anna’s world. Hamme, 1623. It is a time of superstition, rigid traditions, and dangerous secrets. To survive, Thomas must learn to navigate a society that regards unfamiliar knowledge with suspicion. But Anna is no historical footnote. She is intelligent, defiant, and more closely connected to Thomas than either of them could have imagined. As their lives become intertwined, Thomas faces an impossible choice: return to the future he knows, or remain in a past where love may cost him everything. INTERIM is an atmospheric time-travel novel about forbidden knowledge, identity, sacrifice, and a love that refuses to remain confined by history.