Publisher: Dutch novelist and journalist Cees Noteboom has died at the age of 92
The Hague, Netherlands — Cees Noteboom, the Dutch novelist, travel writer and journalist who has been praised for his insights into European history and culture and is often tipped as a potential winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has been announced by his publisher. He was 92 years old.
Notteboom “died peacefully on his beloved island of Minorca,” publishing house De Bezige Bij said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. The publisher said that the letter was written on behalf of his wife, photographer Simone Sassen.
“We will miss the friendship, erudition, passion and privacy of this world-famous writer,” the publishing house added. The cause of death was not mentioned.
Equally comfortable writing fiction, poetry, songs, news reports, or travel stories, Nottebohm’s extensive oeuvre began with Philip and the Others, a novel based in part on his experiences moving through France and Scandinavia in the early 1950s. It has become a Dutch literary classic.
He continued to write newspaper columns and report on events that changed society such as the entry of Soviet forces into Budapest in 1956, the student protests in Paris in 1968, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“The thoughtful constructions of his novels and stories, his mastery of language and the erudition that emerges from each text, are recurring themes in many reviews and jury reports,” the Dutch National Library’s website says.
Nottebohm’s books have been translated into more than 25 languages, and his works are particularly highly regarded by readers and critics in Germany.
Although he has never won the Nobel Prize for Literature, he has received numerous other honors, including all the major Dutch language prizes and the Literature Prize awarded by the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation in 2010.
After immersing himself in journalism and travel writing for much of the 1960s and 1970s, Noteboom returned as a novelist in the 1980s with his novel The Ritual, which turned him into a literary star and was made into a Dutch film.
No funeral arrangements were immediately announced. Nooteboom’s publisher could not be reached by phone late Wednesday and did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
