Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria “Cees” Nooteboom was born on 31 July 1933 in The Hague, Netherlands. His father was killed there in the 1945 bombing of the Bezuidenhout during World War II. After his mother remarried in 1948, his Catholic stepfather enrolled Nooteboom in several religious secondary schools, including a Franciscan school in Venray and a school run by the Augustinians in Eindhoven. He finished his secondary education at a night school in Utrecht. After his first job with a bank in Hilversum, Nooteboom travelled throughout Europe. In addition to his independent writing, he worked for the weekly magazine Elsevier, from 1957 to 1960, and at the newspaper de Volkskrant from 1961 to 1968. In 1967, he became the travel editor of the magazine Avenue. In 1957 Nooteboom was hired on as a sailor on a freighter to Suriname in order to earn money and ask for the hand of his first wife, Fanny Lichtveld. They married but later divorced in 1964. Some of his travel experiences are recounted in the book De verliefde gevangene (1958). He was also in a relationship with the singer Liesbeth List. Nooteboom is married to Simone Sassen and divides his time between Amsterdam, Germany and the island of Menorca. On 2 September 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UCL, London.
