WWB: Can you talk about how the translation of On a Woman’s Madness came to be?

Astrid Roemer (AR): Yes. The English version of my novel came just in time. There is a lot going on about slavery times and people can speak openly about discrimination and racism. Even I am more vocal about the inner voices and very intimate level of the novel. Thanks to the English translation, people in the Caribbean and the USA recognize better than the Dutch do what it means to be black outside of Africa. I love the translation very much.

WWB: Next year, Two Lines will publish your second novel in English. Can you tell us how that collaboration differed from this one?

AR:  There are two translators now. I am excited for the English version of Off White. There is a sense of hidden English in my novels because of my family circumstances. And it is all coming out now so sweetly.