Off-White
Astrid Roemer, Lucy Scott (translation), David McKay (translation)The approaching end has her thinking about the members of her family she's lost, & especially one of her favorite granddaughters, Heli, who has been sent away to the Netherlands because of an affair with her white teacher. Ultimately, there's only one question Bee must answer: What is a family? If her descendants are spread across the world, don't look similar, don't share a heritage, & don't even know each other, what bond will they have once she has died?
A moving portrait of a woman finding peace in the legacy that is her daughters & granddaughters, Off-White, keenly translated by Lucy Scott & David McKay, is also a searing & complex portrait of male violence, the legacy of colonialism, & a dismantling of what it means to be “white”. Written after a nearly 20-year break from publishing, Off-White is another masterpiece from the only Surinamese author to win the prestigious Dutch Literature Award.
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In 1966, 19 y.o. Astrid Roemer emigrated from Suriname to the Netherlands. She identifies herself as a cosmopolitan writer. Exploring themes of race, gender, family, & identity, her poetic, unconventional prose stands in the tradition of authors such as Toni Morrison & Alice Walker. She was awarded the P.C. Hooft Award in 2016, & the three-yearly Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2021.
Lucy Scott is a translator of Caribbean literature written in Dutch & French.
David McKay is a literary translator in The Hague, best known for his translations of novels by the Flemish author Stefan Hertmans, including The Ascent.