We are thrilled that Monique Roffey’s THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH has been longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2021. Delia Jarrett-Macauley, the Chair of Judges, commented on the longlist: ‘Ranging from the quietly political to overt explorations of issues such as war, race and climate change, these twelve novels demonstrate that politics is not just a question of the intellect, but of the imagination too.’ The other authors on the longlist are Xiaolu Guo, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Colum McCann, Rumaan Alam, Curtis Sittenfeld, Douglas Stuart, Ali Smith, Sarah Moss, Akwaeke Emezi, Brit Bennett and Jenny Offill.
THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH was published to wide acclaim by Peepal Tree Press in the UK in April 2020. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Folio Prize and won both the Costa Novel Award and the Costa Book of the Year Award 2020. It has also been shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Translation rights have been sold in Germany, Holland, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Turkey and Russia, with offering in other markets under way and a film deal being concluded.
The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction is one of four prizes awarded by the Orwell Foundation, and rewards outstanding novels and collections of short stories first published in the UK that illuminate major social and political themes, present or past, through the art of narrative. The fiction prize was first awarded in June 2019, when the Orwell Book Prize was replaced with separate prizes for fiction and non-fiction books. The past winners are Colson Whitehead, for The Nickel Boys, and Anna Burns, for Milkman. The shortlists will be announced at the end of May and the winners of each of the £3,000 prizes will be announced around George Orwell’s birthday on 25th June.
A vivid, moving story of love and trust, family and friendship in a Caribbean island community, THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is a world brought to unforgettable life by a master storyteller. A fisherman sings to himself in his boat, but attracts an unexpected sea-dweller — Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed to live as a mermaid, swimming the ocean for centuries. Theirs becomes a calm, unspoken bond. But when she hears David’s engine again one day and follows the vessel, she finds herself in a fierce battle for her life. Caught by American sports fishermen, she is strung up on the dock as a trophy, but David rescues her, and gently wins her trust as she starts to transform, painfully, back into a woman. But jealous eyes are watching them…
Interwoven with David and Aycayia’s love story is that of Miss Arcadia Rain, a white landowner bringing up her deaf son on a dwindling estate. As her young son connects with fellow outsider Aycayia, an old lover of Arcadia’s returns to the island and she too begins to feel her way into love and trust again.
See more about THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH on the Peepal Tree Press site and read an interview with Monique Roffey here.
Praise for THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH
‘Monique Roffey is a unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers.’ — Bernardine Evaristo
‘THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH arrives bearing tragedy and beauty. Monique Roffey has created a new myth for an age of ruined oceans. She continues to be one of our most exciting new Caribbean voices.’ — A.L. Kennedy
‘Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read.’ — Sarah Hall
THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is wonderfully written, with both soul and intense drama – it glistens almost, like the mermaid! I love its all-round charisma and also its great compassion for both humanity and the natural world.’ — Diana Evans
‘THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is like a lost myth, found, and made fresh again for our times.’ — Tessa McWatt, author of Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging
About Monique Roffey
Photo: Marcus Bastel
Monique Roffey is an award-winning novelist. House of Ashes (Scribner UK) was shortlisted for the Costa and the BOCAS Prize. Archipelago, winner of the OCM BOCAS prize for Caribbean Literature, was published by Scribner in the UK, Viking in the US, and translated into 5 languages. Her second novel The White Woman on the Green Bicycle was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, among other accolades, and film/TV rights have been optioned.
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