Writer and memoirist Monique Roffey takes the Costa Prize for Book of the Year with her sixth novel. Based on a Taino legend, The Mermaid of Black Conch is a dark love story between a fisherman and a mermaid torn from the sea
The judges described the book as ‘a classic in the making from a writer at the height of her powers’
Monique Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, British writer. Monique is also a Senior Lecturer on the Creative Writing MA/MFA at Manchester Metropolitan University and has taught creative writing and mentored emerging writers in Trinidad for several years, for COSTAATT, the OCM Bocas Literature Festival, and privately in Port of Spain.
March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island ofBlackConch. A fisherman sings to himself, waiting for a catch - but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn't expect. 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 the fisherman and and his song. But her fascination is her undoing. She hears his boat's engine again, follows it, and finds herself at the mercy of American tourists. After a fearsome battle, she is pulled out ofthe sea and strung up on the dock as a trophy. The fisherman rescues her, and gently wins her trust - as she starts to transform into a woman. The novel's characters are an unlikely mix: a mermaid, a fisherman, a deaf boy, a Caribbean artist and sweetman and a benevolent white landowner.Please note that Cippenham and Langley libraries are now closed until further notice due to the escalating Covid-19 pandemic. You can still use The Curve and Britwell Library for our Click and Collect and returns service only. For Click and Collect go to this link: https://slough.spydus.co.uk/.../spydus.exe/MSGTRN/WPAC/HOME