Dutch novelist, poet and writer Cees Nooteboomone of the most important authors of European literature of the late 19th century, and closely associated with Spain in the last few decades, has failed at the age of 92, as this friend reported in the Dutch editorial De Bezige Bij.
Nooteboom was born in 1933 in La Haya one of the most translated and read Dutch writers outside his countryespecially in Germany, and has achieved international recognition for his work that brings together novel, poetry, essay and travel literature.
The work revolves around the same themes the passage of time, memory, identity and history of Europeinspired and influenced by World War II and its aftermath.
In recent years además, su nombre appears only in the last five years for the Nobel Prize literature, something that remains important. “Every word filled in on this topic is a waste of time,” I said in 2012 in El Cultural.
Among other things, he received the Premio Formentor de las Litras in 2020 because he “crossed the boundaries offered by literary genres with his relentless creativity”.
“The island on which Formentor is located is the neighbor of my island of Menorca, which of course is not mine, no matter what I call “my” island, but it is the place where I have written a large part of my books and poems over the last fifty years. So the prize I am receiving is paramount “I feel like I am going home,” he declared.
He also received the European Aristeon de Literatura prize (1993) por The following storyThe Bordewijk Prize, the European Poetry Prize (2008), the Netherlands Literature Prize (2009) and the highest honor given in travel literature, the Chatwin Prize (2010).
Also from your multi-genre work Here are translations of Spanish, Catalan, French and German poetry.
The death of his father in 1945, during the bombing in the Dutch city of La Haya at the end of World War II, he destroyed his house, destroyed his childhood and left a mark visible in his literature. “I still have the image of that unrecognizable mountain of stones in my retina,” he confirmed when he received the Formentor Award.
He carried out his studies in the seminary of the Franciscans and other Augustinians in various cities and those who were exiled. “The classics that taught me would have a lasting influence on my work, which from then on would be characterized by a continuous nomadic existence,” he explained to El Cultural. “I couldn’t imagine myself at university, my university would be the world. I don’t think I would want to be a writer for that reason.”
I first worked on the bench in 1951, but left it ready to travel to Europe. He made his living on that first trip across the continent on the first amendment, Felipe and the otherswhich tells about the travels of its protagonist across Europe in search of love and why he won the Anne Frank Award in 1957.
Subsequently, public Caballero died (1963), an experimental novel that I also considered the greatest story, and I abandoned the novel for a year to focus on travel writing.
“I began to travel and, apart from my more or less hermetic poetry, I found myself on the fringes of the usual literary environment. I dedicated myself to writing about the world and what I saw on my travels. Budapest 1956, the Berlin Wall 1963, Paris 1968, after Cuba, South America and the wall again, but this time in 1989, the continuation of a united Germany…”.
In 1980, he returned to the novel with Ritualswith which I gained international recognition. Phew published in more than 10 languages and often released in cinemas.
It was released in 1991 The following storywhich achieved success in Germany and consolidated its prestige outside the Low Countries.
Nooteboom’s relationship with Spain has been constant for more than six decades and from those years he spent a long time in Menorca, where he had a house and where he wrote much of his work. In 2010, he confirmed that since 1954 he had not spent a single year without visiting our country.
Spain was not only a place to stay, but also a source of inspiration, such as a book exhibition El desvío to Santiago (1992), the fruit of his travels on the Camino de Santiago and considered one of the best travel books, translated into many languages. “Good for Cees Nooteboom and good for Spain”, bromeaba, the author in an interview with El Cultural.
He said of the country’s modernization: “What I have always found in Spain is true, but it is certain that on trains, as it happened in the 1950s, people did not share food or wine. I lived in Spain before the rise of tourism, which transformed it so profoundly.”
Ya in XXI century, published novels A day of every day (2001), I lost paradise (2006), Song by ser and appearance (2010), el libro de relatos The Zorros come at night (2009), where themes such as memory, life and death, and various ideas such as Hotel Nomada (2002), Cartas in Poseidon (2012) where reflections on everyday life, gods and ancient myths. In recent years, they have also revived news and travelogues as News from Berlin (2014) or Risk and fate (2016).
In his interview with El Cultural in connection with the Formentor Award, he began this reflection on the office, which would be good advice for all aspiring writers: “Vi, leí, esperé, y después scribí”.
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