Guest of the ilb 2003
Leon de Winter was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland, in
1954. His parents were the only members of his Jewish family who
survived the Holocaust. Leon de Winter started writing at the age of
twelve, as a reaction to his father’s early death. Central themes of
his work have since been farewells, mourning, loss and death. He
confronts his fear of personal tragedies with his storytelling. “I
imagine the worst and then I create a ritual, the ritual of writing, to
control it and to protect reality.“ After finishing school he trained
at Bavaria Film in Munich and subsequently studied at the film academy
in Amsterdam. He has been a freelance writer since 1976. His connection
to the film world remained; he has worked as a film-maker, screenplay
writer and producer.
De Winter’s love of cinema also comes across in his novels. His
storytelling relies on various techniques of film narration. He has a
good feeling for plots and settings, and is a master of polished
dialogue. He is not afraid of momentous feelings. His plot structures
are as complex as they are dramatically perfect, his characters alive
and multi-faceted.
One of de Winter’s best-known novels is “Leo Kaplan”(1986, published
in Germany in 2001). Parallel and simultaneously contrary to his own
biography, in this novel the author invents his own alter ego, a writer
suffering from writer’s block. The character of Hoffman in “Hoffman’s
honger“ (1990; t: Hoffman’s Hunger, 1994) is also a tragic hero
searching for a way to cope with the blows dealt by fate.
In 1999 de Winter set up the film production company Pleswin, with
the idea of making European material attractive for the US market. In
2000 the film “The Hollywood Sign“ was adapted from his novel “De Hemel
van Hollywood“ (1997; t: Heaven over Hollywood, 1998) and directed by
Sönke Wortmann. A film adaptation of “SuperTex“ (2003; directed by Jan
Schütte) was released in 2003. Six of his novels have been adapted as
films to date.
Leon de Winter also writes theatre plays, reports and short stories.
He regularly comments on political subjects in essays and newspaper
articles, e.g. on European unification, the Israeli-Palestinian
situation and the war in Iraq.
In 2002 he received the WELT prize for literature for his life’s
work. In 2005 he was Visiting Lecturer at Berkeley University, San
Francisco. Recently, he was awarded the Buber Rosenzweig Medal for his
fight against anti-semitism and racism.
Leon de Winter lives with his wife, the writer Jessica Durlacher, and children in Amsterdam and Los Angeles.
© international literature festival berlin
Leon de Winter online: www.leondewinter.nl | 
