18/05/2026
Recently, writer Raoul de Jong performed at la Biblioteka in Sheffield, as part of the highly anticipated of the English translation (by John Eyck, Hope Road Pubishing) of his seminal novel, ‘Jaguarman'.
‘Jaguarman’ is a powerful retelling of Suriname’s colonial history through the eyes of an Amazonian ancestor with the power to become a jaguar.
Raoul de Jong, the son of a Dutch mother and a Surinamese father, has never met his father until he receives an email just before his twenty-eighth birthday asking to meet. Intriguingly his father tells him about an ancestor who could transform himself into a jaguar. While his father refuses to say more, Raoul set out in search of this enigmatic ancestor who will take him to the stifling streets of Paramaribo, to the heart of the Surinamese jungle and to the house of a voodoo priestess.
👉 The translation of ‘Jaguarman’ was financed by our Translation Grant for Foreign publishers scheme. Publishers can apply for a grant to fund translation for all genres and for production costs for high-quality illustrated children's and youth literature, graphic novels, and poetry. Head to our website to find out more.
This special evening was co-hosted with the Centre of Dutch and Flemish Studies at the University of Sheffield, and part of New Dutch Writing campaign by the Dutch Foundation for Literature. This campaign promotes Dutch writing in translation in the UK and Ireland.
