Eastern Europe. In 2011 the Slavic languages graduate was nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize for poetry for his collection Geheimen van Grzimek (Secrets of Grzimek). De Boose, 51, doesn’t just like to juggle several genres, he does it with aplomb.

De Boose’s recently released novel Gaius is the first part of a trilogy, called Vloekhout (Accursed Tree). “I’ve had this idea for several years now,” he explains, “to write something about the moments in history when people thought that the end of days was upon us and how they dealt with it.”

So he went in search of when these moments actually occurred and picked three: “the first century, when Gaius is set, the 14th century and the 21st century.” Part two will be out later this year, followed by part three early next year.

Gaius, then, is set in the first century, the start of Christianity and the beginning of the demise of the Roman Empire. It’s a period that fascinates the author. Hence his choice to call the trilogy Vloekhout, due to its Biblical reference. Crucifixion “Vloekhout is an Old Dutch word that refers to the wood that was used to crucify people,” explains the Ghent-based author. “This piece of wood plays an important role in the trilogy. In the first part it is an actual piece of the cross that was used to crucify Jesus. It breaks off and it is found by Gaius, who thinks he can use it for one of his stage sets but ends up keeping it as a talisman. This wood fragment will play a vital role in each part of the trilogy. It sort of tells the entire history of Christianity.”

During the first century, the title character builds sets for the theatre of Sepphoris, a town close to Nazareth. His speciality is building deus ex machina blocks that are rolled on to the stage at the end of tragedies to end all confusion.

One day Gaius is summoned by Emperor Nero and embarks on a tumultuous voyage from Bethlehem to Rome. There, he is enlisted to build sets for Nero’s theatre as well as the torture devices for which Nero was famous. Gaius, though, falls into disgrace and flees to what is now Flanders – to a city that’s now called Ename, close to Oudenaarde.

In Ename, Gaius stays with his friend, the weapons dealer Crapularius, to whom he tells his adventures. This is how the novel begins. Flashbacks of his numerous and often death-defying quests are alternated with his stay at Crapularius’ peculiar mansion, which has several skeletons in its closets.

Gaius is an ambitious and intricately constructed novel. As the first part of a trilogy, it sets the tone and pace and raises expectations: It’s an eloquent endeavour full of philosophy, decadence and disaster. Bloody, witty and occasionally grotesque, Gaius is a picaresque novel that leads its readers through a labyrinth-like world occupied by an eclectic cast of (historical) characters.

“Everything I write has to be accurate,” de Boose says. “I’ve also written a lot of non-fiction, so I’m quite accustomed to research. But when you’re writing historical fiction, you combine historical facts with your own ideas or image of a particular person, and sometimes they end up doing things that even surprise me as the writer. Things that might not be historically accurate, but they are correct in my imagination and my portrayal of them.”

There are as many layers to the first part of the Vloekhout trilogy as there are characters. De Boose depicts the darker side of antiquity with such visual flair that you can almost smell the decay, emphasising the fleeting nature of not only human life but of one’s ideals and beliefs. Theatrical and intoxicating, Gaius is an adventure that leads you deep into the belly of the beast.