Connie Palmen

"Vor allem Frauen" (Above All Women) is a collection of personal essays about 11 women (and one man), in which Connie Palmen delves into the success secrets of famous female artists. This includes women such as Virginia Woolf, Marilyn Monroe, Marguerite Duras, and Patricia Highsmith, all of whom, in their own way, transcended the boundaries of prevailing morality and gender. Or Olivia Laing, who felt non-binary before she even knew the word. Connie Palmen engages with her artistic companions, challenges them, discovers differences and similarities with her own life. And when Palmen speaks in these biographical reflections of the painful but necessary separations from friends and lovers, of the chosen self-destruction of women who stray from the beaten path, of the struggle with alcoholism and betrayal, then she is – always also – speaking of herself. This makes "Vor allem Frauen" one of her most personal and wonderful books.

Connie Palmen, born in 1955, is one of the most important Dutch writers of the present day. She studied literature and philosophy in Amsterdam. In 1991, her debut novel Die Gesetze(The Laws) was published, which became an international bestseller with 400,000 copies sold in 1991 alone and translations into 24 countries. The following year, the novel was chosen as European Book of the Year, followed by many more bestsellers. Connie Palmen deals with the big themes of life and writes very personal books characterized by uncompromising openness, profundity, and high entertainment value.