Raoul de Jong
Raoul de Jong (Netherlands, 1984) travelled through West Africa for four months at age 19, survived for four months in New York with 50 dollars in his pocket, and walked from Rotterdam to Marseille on behalf of his dog.
He wrote columns, articles and other pieces for Dutch newspapers and magazines. He has published six novels, including De grootsheid van het al (The Vastness of the Universe, 2013) and Dagboek van een adolescent (Diary of an Adolescent, 2018).
His latest book Jaguarman (2020) is a powerful retelling of the history of the former Dutch colony Suriname, trough the eyes of one of Raoul’s ancestors, a medicine man from the Amazon rainforest, who had the power to turn himself into a jaguar. It was nominated for the Libris Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature.
Raoul received the Anna Blaman Prize for his entire oeuvre in 2022 and was bestowed the honour of writing the Dutch National Bookweek Essay in 2023, Boto Banja, which entered the top of the bestseller list upon publication.
I have been Raoul’s manager since 2021.
