Melanie Raabe, born in 1981, studied media science and comparative literature. After completing a traineeship for a Cologne city magazine, she became an actor, blogger, interviewer, stage play and screen-play writer. She has her own interview blog and has received several prizes for her scripts and short stories. Her debut, The Trap, was internationally one of the most hotly contested foreign language books in recent years. The novel has been sold to 22 countries.