Off-White

A sweeping family saga from one of the most revered writers in Dutch letters, Off-White marks the English-language debut of Astrid Roemer, recipient of the P.C. Hooft Prize and the 2021 Prize for Dutch Literature. In Off-White, Roemer chronicles the inner lives of the women of the Vanta family as they tend to Grandma Bee’s declining health. As the story moves from Bee's religious rituals and the fragrant dishes her granddaughter Imker cooks for her to intersecting layers of family trauma, Roemer exposes the complexities and tensions of betweenness: between young and old, past and present, homeland and homeland, white and off-white. This depiction of Suriname and the Netherlands at the close of the colonial era draws comparisons to the work of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner, as well as contemporary novelists such as Louise Erdrich and Igiaba Scego. Off-White, translated by Jan Steyn, introduces English-language readers to a writer whose daring prose “conjures up a magical and colorful universe in which desire and pain are interlinked.” (De Telegraaf)