A.F.Th. van der Heijden

(1951, Geldrop) is regarded as one of the greatest postwar Dutch writers. He wrote two cycles of novels. In his second cycle Homo Duplex the novels Movo Tapes (2003), Drijfzand Koloniseren (2006) and Het Schervengericht (2007) appeared. In the last book A.F.Th. tells about the great director Roman Polanski, who ends up in a Californian prison, in the same unit as the murderer of his wife and unborn child. For the cycle he abridged his name to A.F.Th. In 2007 appeared Mim, a novella on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Harry Mulisch. Between 1983 and 1996 he published The Toothless Time, which is regarded as the core of his oeuvre and as the most famous cycle in Dutch literature. He has also published other work, for instance Engelenplaque (2003) a diary (1966 to 2003). His work has been awarded several times, with, among others, the F. Bordewijk-prize and the Multatuli-prize. A.F.Th. made his debut in 1978 using the pseudonym Patrizio Canaponi.