Cees Nooteboom, whose novels and travel writing made him one of the Netherlands’ most prominent authors, has died at 92, the Guardian reports.
Nooteboom was born in The Hague, and worked as a journalist before making his literary debut in 1954 with the novel Philip and the Others. He followed that up nine years later with another novel, The Knight Has Died. He concentrated on travel writing until releasing his next novel, Rituals, his first to be translated into English.
His other works of fiction include A Song of Truth and Semblance, In the Dutch Mountains, The Following Story, All Souls’ Day, and Lost Paradise, while his travel writing includes the books A Night in Tunisia, One Morning in Bahia, Roads to Santiago, and Nomad’s Hotel.
He won numerous literary awards, including the Pegasus Prize, Aristeion Prize, Goethe Prize, and the Prix Formentor, and was seen by some as a possible candidate for the Nobel Prize.
At the Guardian, Canadian author Madeleine Thien paid tribute to Nooteboom, writing, “His novel [All Souls’ Day] came to me when I needed it most, and I have returned to it, and to all his books, as if to an ever-enlivening conversation. I feel as if I lost a friend. But Daane reminds himself at the end of All Souls’ Day: someone must bring the flowers. Here, then, are mine.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
