One of the world's most famous writers passes away
One of the world's most important authors, the famous Dutch writer, poet, and essayist Cees Nooteboom, died on February 11, 2026, at the age of 92.
As Fraktura states: Cees Nooteboom (born 1933) is considered one of the most important contemporary European writers.
After studying at monastery schools, he spent his youth hitchhiking across Europe, an experience that was translated into his debut novel Philip en de anderen (Philip and the Others, 1955). A year later, he published his debut poem De doden zoeken een huis (The Dead Seek a Home). His extensive body of work includes novels, travelogues, essays, poems, and plays, and his works have been translated into more than thirty languages.
He was particularly well known as a travel writer: he wrote for Het Parool, Elsevier and de Volkskrant, and from 1968 was literary editor of the magazine Avenue. He first published his travel stories in the book Een middag in Bruay (An Afternoon in Bruay, 1963), then in Een nacht in Tunesië (A Night in Tunisia, 1965) and Een avond in Isfahan (An Evening in Isfahan, 1978).
A wider international readership was introduced to his novel Rituelen (Rituals, 1980), for which he received the F. Bordewijk Prize and the American Pegasus Prize for the best non-American novel. This novel has become a classic of contemporary European literature. It was translated into Croatian by Romana Perečinec. The novel Rituals deals with the conflict between the old and the new, the loss of contact with time and with oneself. Among his important works is the travel bestseller De omweg naar Santiago – Skitnje do Santiagoa, which was translated into Croatian by Radovan Lučić. Skitnje do Santiagoa brings the notes of a modern pilgrim who reflects on Europe and himself through the landscapes, cities, history, art and religion of Spain.
He received the Constantijn Huygens Prize for his entire life in 1992. Together with his wife, the photographer Simone Sassen, he wrote the book Tumbas, dedicated to the tombs of poets and thinkers, and the impressive book Saigoku, a written and illustrated account of their pilgrimage to 33 temples near Kyoto. Suhrkamp has published his Collected Works in eleven volumes.
In 2003 he was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature and in 2004 the prestigious PC Hooft Prize. In the autumn of 2009 he received the Dutch Literature Prize. In 2023, his poetry collection Zo worden jaren tijd (Thus the years become time) was published, a book that Nooteboom himself considered his best publication.Indeksonline/
