deBuren

It is with suitable pride that deBuren will soon be able to add Jeroen Brouwers to the list of Radio Book authors. From 11th to 17th May Maastricht will be dominated by the Toneelstad Festival. The play Datumloze dagen by Jeroen Brouwers will open at the Theater aan 't Vrijthof on Tuesday 13th May. To mark the occasion the writer will read out his Radio Book on Whit Monday, 12th May.

Jeroen Brouwers
Jeroen Brouwers (º1940) was born in Batavia, where he also spent his childhood. Following the Japanese invasion he found himself in a Japanese internment camp together with his grandmother, mother and sister. Brouwers came to the Netherlands in 1948, where he attended various Roman Catholic schools. After completing his military service he spent several years working as a journalist for newspapers and magazines including De Gelderlander and Romance (the later Avenue).
In early 1964 Brouwers moved to Brussels, where he worked until 1976 as an editorial secretary and then as editor-in-chief for Manteau publishers. In 1964 he made his debut with the collection of short stories entitled Het mes op de keel and received the Vijverberg Prize for his subsequent novel Joris Ockeloen en het wachten (1967). He became widely known for Bezonken Rood (1981), in which he describes conditions in the Tijdeng internment camp. This novel is the second part of his autobiographical Indian trilogy, which starts with Het verzonkene (1979, Multatuli prize 1980) and ends with De zondvloed (1988, F. Bordewijk prize 1989). Much of his polemic work has been collected and published in four Kladboeken. The collection of essays, Vlaamse leeuwen (1994), received the Golden Owl award for non-fiction. In 2000 he published Geheime kamers, for which he received both the AKO Literature Prize and the Golden Owl. In 2007 Brouwers received the Dutch Literature Prize for his whole oeuvre. In the jury's opinion 'Jeroen Brouwers changed and marked a new course in postwar Dutch literature'. Moreover, Brouwers has elevated 'the ego document to a fully-fledged literary genre' and the jury describes Brouwers' books of letters as being 'of an unparalleled quality'. Brouwers wrote his most famous polemics 'with great passion and indignation but always with a deep love of the subject'. His latest novel, Datumloze dagen, was published in October 2007.

Monologue: 'Datumloze dagen'
For Het Vervolg theatre company, Brouwers adapted Datumloze dagen into a monologue. The play is a coproduction by Theatergroep Het Vervolg and Theater aan het Vrijthof and is part of the Maastricht Toneelstad Festival. The director is Léon van der Sanden. Datumloze dagen is Jeroen Brouwers' first monologue for the stage, and he wrote it specially for the actor Roef Ragas who recently passed away. His role will now be taken by Tom Jansen.

www.jeroenbrouwers.nl