Fiction and Drama Nicholas Hamburger A realm of language in which he wouldn’t get lost Alix Cléo Roubaud, untitled . 1980, silver gelatin print, multiple exposures. 9 7/16 × 7". Courtesy Galerie Buchholz and the Fonds Alix Cléo Roubaud. F ateh and I had agreed to meet at the train station in Heerlen, a small city about which I knew nothing except that it was landlocked and had an extensive history of Roman occupation. I’d hoped to visit the thermae, a complex of ancient baths that had been reconstructed by Hadrian’s army, but Fateh was clear we wouldn’t have time for sightseeing; when I proposed the idea, he responded with a simple and emphatic “No.” The plan, he explained in the series of short messages that followed, was to shop for groceries at an affordable market before catching a bus bound for the village to which he’d recently moved. My visit to the Netherlands was ostensibly professional. I’d been invited to participate in a media summit focused on water systems and coastal land loss.…