LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

A FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

On a Womans 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 societys expectations.

Strikingly translated by Lucy Scott, AstridRoemers 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 thecruelties we inflict on those who disobey.Roemer, thefirst Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize, carves out postcolonial Suriname in barbed, resonant fragments.Who is Noenka?Roemer asks us. Im Noenka, she responds resolutely, which means Never Again.