'Our society is in a marriage crisis'. Ernest van der Kwast on his new novel Ilyas

The very corona minister Hugo de Jonge, still a Rotterdam alderman in 2017, was the one who set writer Ernest van der Kwast on a new track in his life. A path that led to his new novel Ilyas. In his talk show Rotterdam Late Night, Van der Kwast talked to De Jonge about his programme to help 7,000 Rotterdam youths out of trouble, and asked critical questions about the mentors who were to supervise this. Annoyed, De Jonge said: 'Why don't you do it yourself?

So it is that Van der Kwast has now been helping young city dwellers get their lives on track for three years.

Housekeeper

At Ilyas revolves around such a boy. Main character Peter Lindke is a curator at Boijmans van Beuningen museum, and lives with his wife Kee and their two sons in a nice house for sale. But after Lindke speaks out about what he sees as the incorrect attribution of a painting to Rembrandt van Rijn, he loses his job. He hides this from his wife, as their marriage was faltering anyway.

His Bulgarian housekeeper is startled when she suddenly finds him unexpectedly at home, and they strike up a conversation for the first time. When Peter discovers she is having problems, he decides to help her: he calls creditors, arranges child benefit, rent and care allowance, and puts her administration in order. She is so relieved and grateful that she then arrives with her acquaintance Ilyas, a twenty-something with hefty debts.

A novel loosely based on true events, it delves into why it is necessary to help others, why you would want to do it and whether it makes sense.

A novel about Rembrandt's work and inequality in our society, an unusual combination. How did the two come together?

'In 2012, the issue of the attribution of the painting played out at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Tobit and Anna; Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering believed the canvas was by Van Rijn, Boijmans curator Jeroen Giltaij believed it was not made by the master himself, but by an apprentice or follower. After he had proclaimed that in The World Turned Door, he was put on suspension. Now I didn't find that painting or issue in itself so interesting, but what I did find interesting was: suppose your profession suddenly stops, what are you going to do? Do you get depressed, how solution-oriented are you, how do you give meaning to your life?'

Glove

'During that same period, I began to wonder what I myself could do for society. I realised that I only had a transaction with my cleaning lady: she cleaned, I put money down. Why don't I actually ask her how she is doing? What's going on behind her front door? When we struck up a conversation and I discovered she was having problems, I decided to help her, because I know where to find the authorities and I don't get turned away. So when Hugo de Jonge challenged me during that interview to become a mentor, I decided to take up that gauntlet. The novel examines why it is necessary to help others, why you would want to do it, and whether someone actually wants to be helped.'

How difficult is it to solve the problems of these young people?

'Sometimes that is not so bad. The first girl I mentored could not find a job. She was not good at maths and had level 2 in care, while vacancies always asked for level 3. She told me she had worked in home care, lifting people in lifts. For women who had hairs on their chins, she pulled them out with tweezers. 'Wow,' I thought, 'you feel small because you are not good at maths, but you are very caring and enthusiastic.' That was what an employer needed to hear. We made a CV together and I helped her find the right words. The next day, she had a job.'

And at some point you also got a boy like Ilyas under your wing?

'Yes, in real life that was a Dutch boy with Somali parents. He had big debts, but we managed to get him into debt assistance. It is a tough route: someone has to make ends meet on about 50 euros a week for three years, has to work hard and is not allowed to incur new debts. He found this difficult to maintain, and he also turned out to have a cannabis addiction. He was late for appointments, didn't show up at work. Sat there, with my solution-oriented attitude.'

'At first I got angry, but it's important to stand beside someone. You can't do it before someone, but you can go with them to rehab, for example, and I did. This work has enriched my thinking enormously. We are so quick to judge others when we don't know what exactly is going on at all.'

What did it teach you?

'That there is a large group of people who do not have the degree of intelligence and self-reliance in them, not the right thinking patterns, that we expect from everyone in our liberal society. Often they have quite a lot of baggage and little support or help from those around them. I have one young person under my care with whom I am the only one who knows how he is doing and what kind of situation he is in. That is lonely.'

'There is also great inequality in other areas. Someone who has too little money to buy groceries is forced to live off his rent allowance, ends up unable to pay the rent and builds up debts with the housing association. People who ask for help are often treated with great suspicion beforehand, as if they are fraudsters, which does not help either. Those who fail get fines, and if they cannot pay them, more fines and extra costs come on top of that, until someone gets into such deep trouble that they have to leave their house.'

Togetherness

'Instead of always talking highly of self-reliance, vulnerable people could be protected a bit more. The other day I came across the word 'co-reliance' - the word of the year as far as I am concerned.'

But the gap between population groups and between rich and poor is widening rather than narrowing.

'Let's put first that segregation in countries like India or South Africa is many times worse. In my book, I did try to show a development as it is happening in cities like Rotterdam, where new owner-occupied houses are being built instead of social housing, but with enclosed courtyards. Children play less in public outdoor spaces and attend white-owned schools. Thus, more and more 'gated communities', literally and figuratively closed communities.'

The novel asks whether, if it is already so difficult to find connection in your relationship, is it possible to connect with people you don't know and don't look like you? Ultimately, what is your answer to that?

'I think we can find each other, if we put our shoulders to the wheel. Peter and Kee are in a marriage crisis, but so is our society. We know how to find each other less and less. The more mutual silence, the harder a relationship becomes. We have so much trouble talking to each other, and there is also so much shame. It would be good if we asked each other more questions. For instance, what someone is afraid of or desires.

I now realise even more strongly the advantage my own children have over children who are not read to or taken to the theatre or cinema at home. Their world is so much bigger. When I took one of the youngsters to a joint on Noordplein for a cup of coffee, just a cosy café with a playful décor, he said, "I didn't know such nice places existed in the city."'