March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch, at the start of the rainy season. A fisherman sings to himself in his pirogue, waiting for a catch but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn’t expect. Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid, has been swimming the Caribbean Sea for centuries. And she is entranced by this man David and his song.
The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year Award, in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, in 2020, the Rathbones/Folio Award in 2021, and the Republic of Consciousness Award. It was also long-listed for the OCM Bocas Award for Fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political fiction, 2021.
About the author
Monique Roffey is a writer, lecturer and activist and has been writing for over twenty years. She has published seven books, (a memoir and six novels) and many essays. Her books have won the Orange Prize, Costa Novel Award, Encore and Orion Awards. In 2013, Archipelago won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at MMU and a tutor at the National Writers Centre. Prize in journalism. She then devoted fifteen years and interviewed more than 1,200 people to tell the story of the six million people, among them her parents, who defected from the Jim Crow South.
Other Books by the author
Sun Dog (2002), Scribner, Simon & Schuster
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2009), Simon & Schuster UK
The Global Village, Tell Tales (co-editor; 2009), Peepal Tree Press.
With the Kisses of His Mouth (memoir; 2011), Simon & Schuster UK
Archipelago (2012), Simon & Schuster UK
House of Ashes (2014), Simon & Schuster UK
The Tryst (2017), Dodo Ink
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