Dutch writer and public philosopher.
She grew up in a catholic family in a small village in Limburg, together with her three brothers. Her father was a truck driver, who was often far from home. She wanted to become a priest, but that was impossible for a girl. So she decided to become a nurse or a kind of helper.
At the elementary school, she was a vivid and creative pupil and starred in writing, drama and other activities. But at the medium grade level MAVO, she underperformed because of boredom, her Dutch Letters teacher found out. When her high IQ was discovered, she was sent to the PABO in Roermond to become a school teacher, but in 1978 she went to Amsterdam to study Dutch letters and philosophy. She ended her study Letters cum laude with a thesis on the book “in the Netherlands” of Cees Nooteboom, entitled “The ritual of the text”.
Shortly after finishing her study philosophy with “Het weerzinwekkende lot van de oude filosoof” (The horrific fate of the ancient philosopher) about Socrates, but inspired by French “public” philosophers like Derrida and Foucault, she debuted in January 1991 with the novel “De Wetten” (The Laws).
De Wetten became one of the most read Dutch books and was translated in many languages (1993). It is a classic Bildungsroman, which describes her search for Universal Laws during a period of seven years in which she met seven men: an astrologer, an epileptic, a philosopher, a priest, a physicist, an artist and a psychiatrist.
During a radio interview she met the journalist Ischa Meijer (1943-1995). In his column he called her “het Filosoofje”. Nevertheless , the encounter resulted in a love affair.
Two weeks before the publication of her second novel, “De vriendschap” (The Friendship), Ischa Meijer died suddenly of an heart attack (14 February 1995). Because of his death, the promotional campaign for the book was cancelled, but the novel became a bestseller and received the AKO Literature Prize autumn 1995.
Palmen made ??with 1996 Adriaan van Dis a theatre, in which she pulled down the stages in the Netherlands and Belgium. The next two novels, “IM” (1998) and “Geheel de uwe” (All Yours, 2002) focussed on the life and death of Meijer, her great love. IM more on a strongly autobiographical way and and Completely yours in a more abstract, objectified manner.
From 1999 till his death in 2001, she had a lofe affair with the D66 politician Hans van Mierloo. They married 1 November 2009 in Amsterdam.
Her key novel 2007 novel Lucifer, was inspired by Vondel’s drama Lucifer and The Discovery of Heaven of Mulisch. It describes intellectual life in Amsterdam
On 9 May 2016 at 22h19, Palmen won the yearly Libris Price of 50,000 Euro for her novel “Jij zegt het” (You say it). The book describes the tragic marriage of the writer Ted Hughes with the poet Sylvia Plath, that ended with the suicide of Plath.
Link to Wikipedia