Kees Van Beijnum
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Kees van Beijnum (born 21 March 1954 in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
) is a Dutch writer. He grew up in Amsterdam, where his mother had a bar near the
Zeedijk Zeedijk (''English'': "Sea Levee, dike") is a street in the old centre of Amsterdam. The street is the northern and eastern boundary of De Wallen red-light district and runs between Prins Hendrikkade and Nieuwmarkt. Historically an area riddled ...
. Before he became a writer, he was a journalist. He made his debut as a novelist in 1991 with ''Over het IJ'', a
non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking, depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The ...
about a murder case in Amsterdam. The novel ''De ordening'', published in 1998, was based on the life of
Florentine Rost van Tonningen Florentine Sophie Rost van Tonningen (née Heubel; 14 November 1914 – 24 March 2007) was the wife of Meinoud Rost van Tonningen, Meinoud Marinus Rost von Tonningen, the second leader of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) ...
(1914–2007), a Dutch
national-socialist Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...
who stood by her beliefs until her death. The book was adapted to film and was nominated for a
Golden Calf According to the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, the golden calf () was a cult image made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai (bible), Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as "the sin of the calf" (). It is first mentio ...
award in 2003. He received the
Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs The Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize (Dutch: F. Bordewijk-prijs) is a literary award, presented annually by the Jan Campert Foundation to the author of the best Dutch prose book. The prize was established in 1948 as the Vijverberg Prize, before being na ...
in 2001 for ''De Oesters van Nam Kee'' ("Oysters at Nam Kee's"), which was also longlisted for the
Libris Prize The Libris Literature Award or Libris Prize (Dutch: Libris Literatuur Prijs) is a prize for novels originally written in Dutch. Established in 1993, it is awarded annually since 1994 by Libris, an association of independent Dutch booksellers, a ...
. The book was also made into a film as Oysters at Nam Kee's starring
Katja Schuurman Katja Schuurman (born 19 February 1975) is a Dutch actress, singer and television personality. Early life Schuurman grew up as the eldest daughter of a Dutch people, Dutch father and a Curaçao-born Surinamese mother of mixed Dutch, Chinese, In ...
. Van Beijnum also changed publishers in 2001, moving from
Nijgh & Van Ditmar Singel Uitgeverijen is a Dutch publishing group, headquartered in Amsterdam. Its subsidiaries are Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Querido Verlag, De Arbeiderspers, Athenaeum, Polak & Van Gennep, De Geus, and Volt. Books are also published directly by Singel Ui ...
to
De Bezige Bij De Bezige Bij ("the busy bee") is one of the most important literary publishing companies in the Netherlands. History The company was founded illegally in 1943, during the German occupation of the Netherlands by ; its first publication was a po ...
. Van Beijnum also wrote the scenarios for ''De langste reis'' ('the longest travel', 1996), a movie about the kidnapping of businessman
Gerrit Jan Heijn Gerrit Jan Heijn (14 February 1931, Zaandam – 9 September 1987) was a Dutch businessman, who was a top manager of Ahold until his murder in 1987. His grandfather was Albert Heijn, who founded the family business, and his older brother was al ...
, and for ''De Heineken Ontvoering'' ('The Heineken Kidnapping', 2011), a movie about the kidnapping of
Freddy Heineken Alfred Henry Heineken (4 November 1923 – 3 January 2002) was a Dutch businessman for Heineken International, the brewing company created in 1864 by his grandfather Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. He served as chairman of the board of di ...
.


De Offers

''De Offers'' (lit. ''The Sacrifices'') was published on October 2, 2014. The book is a work of
historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...
about a Dutch judge who is sent to Japan to represent his country in the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their cri ...
. In the novel, the main character is named Rem Brink (as opposed to the real-life Dutch representative on the tribunal,
Bert Röling Bernard Victor Aloysius "Bert" Röling (26 December 1906 – 16 March 1985) was a Dutch jurist and founding father of polemology in the Netherlands. Between 1946 and 1948 he acted as the Dutch representative for the International Military Tribu ...
), but the other judges are mentioned by their real names. In the week of its publication, Dutch daily newspaper
NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis NRC. It is widely regarded as a newspaper of record in the country. History was first published on 1 October 1970 after a merger of the Amst ...
wrote that the book had caused a "commotion". Van Beijnum used diaries and letters provided to him confidentially by one of judge Röling's sons, the paper wrote. The source material was given to Van Beijnum to write a
screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...
for the director
Pieter Verhoeff Pieter Verhoeff (4 February 1938 – 17 April 2019) was a Dutch film director. He studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy and graduated in 1966. He is known for his films ''The Mark of the Beast (film), The Mark of the Beast'', ''Th ...
. Judge Röling's son objected to the use of the material for a novel instead of a screenplay, as he was writing a biography of his father himself. He also objected to parts of the novel in which the main character visits brothels and eventually leaves a mistress behind with a child he fathered. Van Beijnum told the paper he constructed a fictional character and "maybe used some small bits" from the material ("a little book") provided to him by judge Röling's son. On December 14, 2014, another Dutch daily newspaper,
De Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...
, named the controversy "the literary scandal of 2014", and revealed that the author made several changes to his book ahead of publication to accommodate the grievances of judge Röling's son. The paper also quotes director Pieter Verhoeff, who asked not to be thanked in the acknowledgements, stating that he "had contributed nothing whatsoever to the book". Judge Röling's son Hugo published the biographical account of his father's time at the tribunal as ''De rechter die geen ontzag had'' (lit. ''The judge who knew no reverence'') on October 1, 2014.


Bibliography

* 1991 ''Over het IJ'' ('Over the IJ',
non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre that, broadly speaking, depicts non-fictional elements, such as real historical figures and actual events, woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The ...
) * 1994 ''Hier zijn leeuwen'' ('There are lions here', novel) * 1995 ''Dichter op de Zeedijk'', ('Poet on the Zeedijk', novel, also made into a movie) * 1998 ''De ordening'', ('The ordering', novel, also made into a movie) * 2000 ''De oesters van Nam Kee'' ("Oysters at Nam Kee's", novel, also made into a movie), * 2002 ''De vrouw die alles had'' ('The woman that had everything', novel) * 2004 ''Het verboden pad'' ('The forbidden path', novel) * 2008 ''Paradiso'' (novel) * 2010 ''Een soort familie'' ('A kind of family', novel) * 2014 ''De Offers'' (novel)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beijnum, Kees Van 1954 births Living people 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch male writers 21st-century Dutch novelists Writers from Amsterdam Ferdinand Bordewijk Prize winners Dutch male novelists 21st-century Dutch male writers