In 1990 the portrait of Dr. Gachet that Vincent van Gogh painted weeks before he committed suicide on July 29, 1890, was auctioned at Christie’s New York for a record eighty-two and a half million dollars. It was bought by Japanese tycoon Ryoei Saito.
Angry with his country’s government for the taxes they demanded for the painting, the Japanese billionaire announced at a world press conference that Van Gogh’s canvas would disappear with him. Since his death in 1996, nothing has been heard of the work in the art world. A mystery that has caused rivers of ink to flow and has given rise to all kinds of speculation.
SAKURA begins with a quote from the controversial artist Banksy:
“There is nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place”.
Matilde Asensi writes about his search and provides answers to many of the mysteries of the enigma of his disappearance. From the Père Tanguy gallery in Paris and under the direction of the Japanese Ichiro Koga, a heterogeneous group of five people unknown to each other, will embark on an adventure in which the search for the portrait of Dr. Gachet will change their lives and along the way they will weave between them invisible ties that will lead them to success or failure.
A novel in which the traditions of Japanese culture intermingle with impressionist painting, ukiyo-e prints and urban art; the colors have the strength of its protagonists, and in which the extraordinary presence of the cherry blossom, sakura, emerges as an allegory of beauty and the transience of life.
Matilde Asensi, with more than twenty million readers worldwide, the writer from Alicante is the reference for the unconditional fans of historical adventure novels.
In 1999, she published her first novel, El salón de ámbar (The Amber Room). A year later, she placed “Iacobus” on the bestseller lists and, with “El último Catón”, the most widely read to date, she made the leap beyond our borders, publishing it in more than fifteen countries.
Art has been present in most of Asensi’s novels, it is the invisible thread that unites them. Each of her stories masterfully weaves the resolution of great mysteries with extraordinary adventures.
Awarded with several national and international literary prizes, Matilde Asensi, however, has always considered that her greatest reward is to hook her readers and surprise them with each new installment. And she has been doing so for more than twenty years with great success, no doubt judging by the loyalty of her followers.
In SAKURA Matilde Asensi masterfully combines the intricate symbols of Japanese culture with the paintings of Vincent van Gogh and surprises us again by solving one of the most amazing enigmas of the twentieth century.
Matilde Asensi. Sakura. La Esfera de los Libros, 2019.