#2: Dubbelspel (English: Double Play) (1973) by Frank Martinus Arion     Â
Country: Curaçao
Length: 393 p
Language: Dutch                                             Â
Status: Out of print in English. Yet to be translated into Soga and other African languages.                                                   Â
Wish: Reissue of the English translation and translated into multiple languages
Monolingual translations: English (reprint), Bemba, Lingala, ẸĚdĂł, Patois, TesoÂ
Bilingual editions: Dutch-English, Dutch-Swahili, Dutch-Zulu.      Â
Audiobooks: Soga, Wolof, Maasai, Southern Ndebele, Geechee-Gullah*
This was one of two books by Caribbean authors that I was desperate to get a hold of last summer when I decided I wanted to read more works by Caribbean authors in general, and non-Anglophone Caribbean writers in particular. All the copies of the 1998 Faber edition I found online were used too expensive to justify buying, for a book I had never read and that was not new.Â
Synopsis: A marathon game of dominoes, lasting from early morning to dusk, and involving four men for whom the game is a trigger for social, political and sexual rivalries against a background of colonial unrest. A complacent bailiff and his feckless taxi-driver partner are deserted by their wives for a mixture of personal and idealistic reasons, and the resulting turmoil leads on to murder and suicide as the tensions work themselves out. As well as being a novel of character, Double Play offers a powerful picture of colonial and attitudes in the mid-twentieth century.













