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De Winter invariably writes about a man in a crisis, searching for his (Jewish) roots and being forced to make existential choices. His cinematic style reflects the fact that De Winter is also a film maker. Het recht op terugkeer (The Right of Return, 2008) has been nominated for both the AKO Literature Prize and the NS Public’s Choice Prize. De Winter is a high-profile political commentator, whose columns and essays have been published in Dutch periodicals and newspapers, as well as in German titles such as Die Welt and Der Spiegel.

Leon de Winter

Abbottabad, Pakistan, 2011. ‘Usama’ Bin Laden, the world’s most feared terrorist, has the fate of the President of the United States in his hands. The information he has obtained will enable him to engineer the fall of the US government.Tom Johnson, a former CIA agent whose marriage imploded after the death of his young daughter, is indirectly involved in a rogue mission to bring Bin Laden to justice: this plan, and that of his fellow servicemen, is not to follow implied U.S. instructions to ‘capture or kill’ but to take him alive.At the base where he is stationed, Tom had struck up a friendship with an Afghan interpreter and awakened a passion for music in his friend’s young daughter Apana by introducing her to Bach’s Goldberg Variations. When the interpreter is killed during a mission, Tom takes Apana under his care but during a Taliban attack on the base, she is abducted. Desperate not to lose another daughter, Tom vows to do whatever it takes to get her back.Mutilated by her Taliban abductors, Apana is cast out on to the streets of Abbottabad, where Jabbar, an enterprising young Pakistani, does his best to look out for her. Jabbar’s enquiring mind, will later put him in jeopardy.

A novel with the breakneck pace of a Tom Clancy thriller.

One night, unable to sleep, Usama jumps on a beaten-up motorbike and heads through the tunnel under his hiding place to buy a pack of cigarettes. Out on the street he encounters a crippled beggar girl who seems to recognise him. Deter- mined not to risk discovery, he takes the girl back to his hiding place. It is Apana. Through her, Usama, Tom and Jabbar are now linked.Geronimo takes its title from the code name for the operation to eliminate Bin Laden. It is a superb and compelling political thriller that packs a punch on many levels.

De Winter stokes the imagination till the pages catch fire. It’s a drive that makes him unique.

Book

Fiction

Geronimo

What if Osama Bin Laden were still alive and a lookalike had been gunned down in his place? This is the geopolitical game changer that ignites Leon de Winter’s novel 'Geronimo'.

Bram Mannheim runs an office in Tel Aviv that helps parents track down lost children. His own son disappeared sixteen years previously. In his free time he works as a volunteer for the ambulance service. After a bloody attack on a border post, Bram makes a discovery that puts him on the trail of a sinister plot, in which his son may have been involved.‘Solidarity,’ De Winter’s central character sighs, ‘grew out of the fate he shared with them (his students, his colleagues, his father) and the great abstraction that this country was. He could not free himself from it, even if he wanted to.’ De Winter is a writer with a mission. If he can no longer save the world through his columns and polemical articles, then surely he can with his novels. In The Right of Return he leaves no room for doubt that unless the Jews root out the Palestinians, the reverse will happen. In fact, Muslims will gain the upper hand in any case, wherever they are in the world. This fear of Muslims is expressed not by De Winter’s protagonist Bram Mannheim but by Bram’s father, his employer and his fellow employees, so that it seems some slight opening remains.

A pitiless pageturner.

Writers with an all too urgent message usually write poorly. In that sense De Winter is an exception. With The Right of Return he continues in the vein that made his novel God’s Gym (2002) such an achievement: a pared down kind of literature, far removed from the Dutch literary tradition, emulating the American ‘hard-boiled’ thriller. It is a genre that leaves little room for ambiguity and enigma, instead taking a direct path to its terrible denouement. Clever. Beautiful. Nightmarish. You want to read all about it, without delay, to be convinced of an acrimoniously composed world view: where the synagogue disappears, the mosque will arise.

A bold novel with Mulisch-like allure.

Het recht op terugkeer

In 'The Right of Return' Leon de Winter has written an audacious book that demonstrates more powerfully than ever that he is a prophet of doom. In this science-fiction novel, set mainly in 2024 and 2025, he describes a doom scenario in which Israel has been reduced in size and beleaguered to such an extent that it is virtually uninhabitable.

The Right of Return

In VSV, De Winter describes a fictitious but not implausible series of attacks by Muslim extremists. The protagonist is Max Kohn, a former criminal who has spent the past ten years in Las Vegas, losing himself in drink, drugs and prostitutes. But after a heart operation he decides that he wants to turn his life around. He returns to Amsterdam to reconcile with the love of his life, Sonja Verstraete, a doctor. Kohn had Sonja’s father, a property magnate, killed in retaliation for an attempt on his own life.What Kohn does not know is that Sonja is the mother of his son, who is one of the hostages that he has to free. His partner in this mission is Kichie Ouaziz, who was once Kohn’s right-hand man and did his dirty work for him. Kichie also has an interest in ensuring a positive outcome; his son is the leader of the terrorists. At a crucial moment in their joint operation to rescue the children and teachers, they are aided by Van Gogh, in the form of a guardian angel who subtly influences the situation, so that the special forces unit can successfully intervene.

De Winter is a master at uniting opposites. His cinematic, tightly rhythmic style is a perfect fit for this unique divine comedy in which the writer, at lightning speed, goes in search of light and enlightenment for everyone.

While building up to this climax of the novel, De Winter introduces a host of fictitious and real characters, including himself – all with their own motives and background story. As in much of De Winter’s work, some of them are struggling with their Jewish identity.VSV is far more than just a contemporary thriller about events that may seem far-fetched. De Winter presents a carefully crafted tale that feels both plausible and realistic.

De Winter immediately grabs hold of the reader and does not let him go.

VSV of daden van onbaatzuchtigheid

In this thrilling novel, bestselling author Leon de Winter describes how radical Muslims in Amsterdam blow up the town hall and opera house and hijack a plane before taking the children and teachers at a school (VSV) hostage. Theo van Gogh, the filmmaker and polemicist who was murdered by a Muslim in 2004, plays a special role as the guardian angel of the man who has to bring the hostage situation to a successful conclusion.

VSV, or Acts of Kindness

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