Book

Cees Nooteboom

Rituals

Intelligent and poetic

Set in Amsterdam during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the novel opens with the protagonist’s attempted suicide after his wife, Zita, leaves him for an Italian. We follow Inni Wintrop as he wanders the streets of Amsterdam alone, looking for meaning in the ‘wonderful, empty universe’. Along the way he happens to encounter Arnold Taads and his estranged son, Philip. All three characters have lost their faith in God and are attempting to create their own meaning in life through rituals. Arnold Taads is rigidly tied to time. ‘Time,’ Inni learns, ‘was the father of all things in Arnold Taad’s life’.

Philip Taads, on the other hand, attempts to escape time through Zen-like rituals. As for Inni, ‘women had become his religion, the centre, the essence of everything, the great cartwheel on which the world turned’.

Intelligent and poetic, Rituals is ultimately an existential novel in which the three main characters ask themselves questions about freedom, fear, disgust and estrangement. It is also a parable about the importance of learning to ride the unpredictable waves of life in a universe devoid of God.

Cees Nooteboom is an impressive, unique voice in the chorus of modern writers.

The New York Times

A master of ironic wisdom.

The Independent on Sunday

Translations

Cees Nooteboom

Cees Nooteboom (b. 1933) debuted in 1955 with the novel Philip en de anderen (Philip and the Others) and has since built up an imposing oeuvre of novels, poetry, short stories and travelogues. His work earned him numerous awards, among which the Bordewijk Prize an the (American) Pegasus Prize for…

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Details

Rituelen (1980). Fiction.
Words: 48,000

Publisher

De Arbeiderspers

Weteringschans 259
NL - 1017 XJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 760 72 10

E-mail:
[email protected]
Website:
http://www.singeluitgeverijen…

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