I was lucky enough to get a personally signed copy of this book as part of the NS Publieksprijs campaign, and it went on to win the competition. I must admit that I was a bit puzzled by that.  It was ok, but not that wonderful imho. Especially in the begining, I found it a bit of a struggle, but once I got about a third into it, it went better.
There were some nice aspects. The vasculum ('botaniseertrommel') and herbarium was of interest to me as a botanist. I am still wondering what 'ruivelaag-gras' is; I cannot find that anywhere on internet.  
I was not so impressed by the small sections in the book where he sprung forward to the current time. It was a nice idea, but to be honest, random conversations with strangers in the park was not that interesting to read about.
The other problem that I had is that I am always sceptical of memoirs and autobiographies. In this case, he is at least honest enough to give a number of big hints that he is a potentially unreliable narrator (what do you know about when you were nine?). Nevertheless, it is still the case that we have no idea what he leaves out or alters so that he comes over better (consciously or not). 
I would have preferred it if Rob van Essen had won.