Rosenboom received his secondary education in Arnhem and then studied psychology in Nijmegen, but after three years switched to Dutch literature and linguistics, gaining his degree cum laude in 1983. His authorial debut was a novella, Bedenkingen, which he published in the literary magazine De Revisor. His 1983 collection De mensen thuis, which included Bedenkingen, won him the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogtprijs. His first novel was the 1985 thriller Vriend van verdienste.
