off-white (Forthcoming)

by astrid roemer / translated from dutch by lucy scott & david mckay

A stunning, expansive chronicle of Suriname from Astrid Roemer, whose On a Woman’s Madness is a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award.

In 1966 Suriname, the Vanta family, an intricate blend of Creole, Maroon, French, Indian, Indigenous, British, and Jewish heritage, is led by Grandma Bee, a proud, cigar-smoking matriarch facing her final days. As she reflects on her scattered family and the loss of her favourite granddaughter, Heli, exiled to the Netherlands for an affair with her white teacher, Bee grapples with one question: What truly binds a family? Off-White offers a moving exploration of Bee’s legacy amid themes of male violence, colonialism, and the dismantling of racial identity, marking the return of a celebrated Surinamese author after two decades.

praise

‘Off-White…echoes [Roemer’s] earlier themes—the racial and sexual dynamics of Suriname’s multiethnic society—but with a larger scope, examining several generations of a Surinamese family in the years between World War II and the 1960s.’ —Anderson Tepper, The New York Times

‘Emotionally cool; the narrative ripples with the feeling of history and ill-advised decisions slowly insinuating themselves into lives rather than dramatically transforming them.’ —Kirkus Reviews

contributors’ details

In 1966, at the age of nineteen, Astrid Roemer emigrated from Suriname to the Netherlands. She identifies herself as a cosmopolitan writer. Exploring themes of race, gender, family and identity, her poetic, unconventional prose stands in the tradition of authors such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. She was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 2016, and the three-yearly Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2021.

Lucy Scott is a translator of Caribbean literature written in Dutch and French. Her short story and essay translations thus far have appeared in Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee Review and in Wilderness House Literary Review. She is the translator of Astrid Roemer’s On a Woman’s Madness and Off-White.

David McKay, a literary translator based in The Hague, is best known for translating Stefan Hertmans's novels, including The Ascent. He has been shortlisted for various translation prizes and won the Vondel Prize for Hertmans’s War and Turpentine. Other recent publications include Charlotte van den Broeck’s Bold Ventures, described in the New York Times as “a small marvel: a monument to human beings continuing to reach for the skies.”

more information

Publication date: 20 May 2025
Extent: 368pp
Format: B-format paperback (198mm × 127mm)
Rights held: UK & Commonwealth
ISBNs: 978-1-917126-09-0 (paperback) / 978-1-917126-10-6 (ebook)
Price: £16.99 (paperback)/ £8.99 (ebook)