Buddingh Prize, she was working as a psychoanalyst. Since then she has devoted much of her time to writing. With her first two novels, Het meesterstuk (The Masterpiece, 1995) and Het geheim (The Secret, 1997), psychological novels in which classical music is central, Enquist quickly reached a broad readership. In 2002 she wrote the Book Week gift, De ijsdragers (The Ice Carriers), and in 2005 she published the major historical novel De thuiskomst (The Homecoming), which focuses on James Cook's wife Elizabeth Batts. For the French translation of this novel, she received the Prix du Livre Corderie Royale-Hermione.