The Friendship
By (Author) Connie Palmen
Translated by Ina Rilke
Vintage Publishing
The Harvill Press
5th April 2011
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Narrative theme: Coming of age
Narrative theme: Interior life
Fiction in translation
839.3/1364
Paperback
288
Width 147mm, Height 208mm, Spine 18mm
305g
Ara and Kit, two girls in the village school, seem to have nothing in common. Ara, the elder, is large, earthy and illiterate; Kit is lean, brainy and interested in abstractions like philosophy. After they leave school Ara cannot let Kit alone - she is drawn to her as a moth to a candle flame.
Connie Palmen (1955) is an author, philosopher and expert of Dutch literature and language. Her first novel De wetten (The Laws, 1991) became a bestseller and established her name as a writer. Her two subsequent novels De vriendschap (The Friendship, 1995) and I.M. (1998) followed her debut onto the bestsellers list. She went on to publish Geheel de uwe (Sincerely Yours, 2004), Lucifer (2007) and Logboek van een onbarmhartig jaar (Log Book of a Merciless Year, 2011). Palmen has also written several collections of essays, like Een kleine filosofie van de moord (A Short Philosophy of Murder, 2004) and Het geluk van de eenzaamheid (The Joy of Loneliness, 2009). She was awarded the AKO Literature Prize for De vriendschap and the Libris Literature Prize for Your Story, My Story.