Connie Palmen [ The Netherlands ]

Connie Palmen was born in Sint Odiliënberg in the south of Holland in 1955. After finishing a paedagogical training she studied philosophy and Dutch literature in Amsterdam, and completed her studies with a thesis about Cees Notenboom, in 1986.

Her first novel, »De Wetten« (1991; Eng. »The Laws«, 1992), was awarded the Gouden Ezelsoor for best-selling début novel, and it was an instantaneous hit at home as well as abroad. The novel centers around a young woman who explores the laws of seven men’s approaches to life – among them a physicist, a priest and an artist. It has been translated into seven languages.

In 1998 she published the novel »I.M.«, in which she tells the story of her intensive relationship with Ischa Meijer, her partner, a Dutch journalist, writer and moderator who died young: »For the first time in days I don’t have him at my side, and I’m terrified that I can’t do anything with an hour and a half without him, that every urge for action will forsake me and I will walk around like insufficiency come to life.«

In her novel »De Vriendshap« (1995; Eng. »The friendship«, 2000), Palmen analyses the relationship of dependency between two friends. It is about power and the abuse of power, love and mistrust. Palmen examines the depths of interpersonal relationships to understand how addictive behaviour comes into being and works, and how authority is applied in order to induce love.

Her latest novel, »Luzifer« (2007), deals with a true story – the unexplained death of Marina Schapers, the partner of composer Peter Schat, in July of 1981. The couple Lucas Loos and Clara Wevers take a vacation to Greece in order to try to save their broken marriage. Then Clara, drunk, tumbles over a railing to her death. The author doesn’t make clear whether it was suicide or murder. The focus is rather on how Lucas and the friends of the couple deal with the news of Clara’s death and how they mourn. The question of guilt is intensively examined: did Lucas passively watch his wife die, or even assist it? Palmen probes the chasms of the human soul without jumping to conclusions or making moral judgements. The sequel, »Judas«, a novel about betrayal, is set to be published in three to four years.

Palmen was awarded the renowned Dutch AKO Literature Prize and the Trouw Literature Prize for »De Vriendshap«. She lives in Amsterdam.

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