Looks Like Love

In Dutch the word ‘lijken’ has two meanings, as a result this book’s title can be read in two ways: it can mean ‘approaching or looking like love’ but it could also mean ‘love buried under dead bodies’. In this novel, set in Surinam in December 1999, we follow the life of Cora Sewa, a housekeeper whose opinion is seldom or never asked but whose discretion is often required. Someone who has eyes and ears but is expected to keep quiet about what she has witnessed.

Author
Astrid H. Roemer
Original title
Lijken op liefde

Astrid Roemer, though, does give this voiceless woman a chance to speak, something that will come as no surprise to those familiar with the rest of Roemer’s oeuvre. She often chooses Surinamese women as her main characters to show, in no uncertain terms, just what male-dominated society suppresses and represses. In Roemer’s hands, the personal story of the housekeeper, who twice in her life has been indirectly involved in dubious murder cases, becomes an example of the inextricable entanglement of the personal and the political. Stories from the past – about independence, the political murders of December 1982, Desi Bouterse’s regime – are used to show how this complex mixture has always dominated Surinamese society, even in the days when the country was a Dutch colony. Corruption, sex scandals and murder are the order of the day.

The fairy tale of a virgin servant girl in a tropical paradise is shattered. The womans learning process is illuminating and painful at the same time. In Roemer’s view, Surinam will not enter the new century unscathed. But she lets the hope of better times – of love’s victory over the bodies – shine through. Cora’s life story is significant for everyone, the authorities, the repressed, and all who read this book.

'Lijken op liefde' is a thriller, a political novel about Surinam as well as a philosophical tale in which an elderly woman critically examines her own life. (…) A multi-layered book, full of food for thought.

Marnel Breure, Vrij Nederland

A penetrating novel […]. Roemer’s exquisite language in all its glory.

Elsbeth Etty, NRC Handelsblad

It smoulders, swelters, and beneath the surface it’s as sultry as a Tennessee Williams play. The book draws you in and does not let you go.

Frank van Dijl, Algemeen Dagblad
Astrid H. Roemer
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.
Share page