Frank Martinus Arion Double Play

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Praise:

‘A fully-fledged political novel, written in a style of nearly unfathomable quality.

’ – Vrij Nederland

‘Although Double Play is a first novel, it is the work of a mature writer – one who prepared himself for this sort of audience through life experience.’ – World Literature Today

‘A cleverly constructed novel, full of sharp social observation and convincing characterisation, it

tells us a good deal about Curaçao, about men, and about the darkness that lurks behind the seemingly innocent pastime of dominoes.’ – Carribean Beat

FRANK MARTINUS ARION (19362015) was born in Curaçao. He studied and taught Dutch literature in the Netherlands, where he was active in the Caribbean expatriate community and published poetry and fiction, and worked in Surinam from 1975 onwards. In 1980 he returned to Curaçao, where he was director of the Instituto Lingwistiko Antiano. He published the novel Double Play in 1973 (awarded with the Van der Hoogte Prize), Goodbye to the Queen, 1975), Noble Savages (1979), The Last Freedom (1995) and The Deserters (2006).

Frank Martinus Arion

Double Play

A game of dominoes turns into a battle of life and death: Arion reflects on the topics of racism and discrimination and the effects of colonialism on the world

On a drowsy, warm Sunday afternoon, four men play a game of dominos underneath a tamarind tree. The apparent calm that envelopes them gives the impression that this is about nothing more than a domino game. However, on this Sunday, their game will evolve into a fight of life or death. The men bring not only their tiles, but also their problems to the domino table: at the end of the day we know their what they think about one another, about each other’s wives, politics and the world.

Double Play was translated in several languages and the US movie adaptation was launched in 2017. The movie was produced by Lisa Cortés and Gregory Elias and is directed by Ernest Dickerson (Do The Right Thing; The Wire).

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Büchergilde Gutenberg (Germany) – Novel –400 pages – First publication: 1973 – Full English translation available