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On A Woman's Madness

By Astrid Roemer
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Brief Description
Longlisted, 2025 International Booker PrizeFinalist, 2023 National Book Award for Translated LiteratureWinner, Dutch Literature PrizeWinner, P. C. Hooft AwardOn a Woman's Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Longlisted, 2025 International Booker Prize

Finalist, 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature

Winner, Dutch Literature Prize

Winner, P. C. Hooft Award

On a Woman's Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her request for divorce, Noenka flees her hometown in Suriname, on South America's tropical northeastern coast, for the capital city of Paramaribo. Unsettled and unsupported, her life in this new place is illuminated by romance and new freedoms, but also forever haunted by her past and society's expectations.

Strikingly translated by Lucy Scott, Astrid Roemer's classic queer novel is a tentpole of European and post-colonial literature. And amid tales of plantation-dwelling snakes, rare orchids, and star-crossed lovers, it is also a blistering meditation on the cruelties we inflict on those who disobey. Roemer, the first Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize, carves out postcolonial Suriname in barbed, resonant fragments. Who is Noenka? Roemer asks us. 'I'm Noenka,' she responds resolutely, 'which means "Never Again."'

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781917126076

Publisher: Tilted Axis Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 October 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Tilted Axis Press

Contributors:

  • Translated by Lucy Scott

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 250g

Pages: 284

Collections

Astrid Roemer Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction

About the Author

In 1966, at the age of 19, 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's the translator of Astrid Roemer's On a Woman's Madness and Off-White.

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