We are delighted that Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch has been shortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize, an award established to celebrate fiction ‘that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form’. Prize judge Sarah Ladipo Manyika described the book as ‘a powerful feminist tale which speaks artfully to the nature of love and possession, race and class, creolization and colonialism’. Also shortlisted are Xiaolu Guo, M. John Harrison, DBC Pierre, Paul Griffiths and Anakana Schofield.
The Mermaid of Black Conch was published in the UK by Peepal Tree Press, and by W F Howes in audio, and was described by The Sunday Times as ‘sensuous, beguiling, but without whimsy’. Manyika also praised the book for its ‘unforgettable characters and scenes’, adding that it ‘sings with warm echoes of Jean Rhys, Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston’ and is ‘one of those rare gems of a novel that can be read and enjoyed on many levels’. Read more about the novel and the judges’ commentary on the Goldsmiths Prize site here.
The Mermaid of Black Conch is a vivid, moving story of love and trust, family and friendship in a Caribbean island community – 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 here.
The winner of the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize will be announced on 11th November. The £10,000 prize is awarded to the work it deems ‘genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best’. Winners over past years are Lucy Ellman, Robin Robertson, Nicola Barker, Mike McCormack, Kevin Barry, Ali Smith and Eimear McBride.
Praise for The Mermaid of Black Conch
‘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 unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers.’ — Bernardine Evaristo
‘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
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.
Read an interview with Monique Roffey here.
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