'affecting, beautiful'

Written by Richard Price for New West Indian Guide on Friday, September 18th, 2020

In The Mermaid of Black Conch (Leeds U.K.: Peepal Tree Press, 2020, paper £9.99), Monique Roffey, Trinidad-born British author of the acclaimed The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2009), has written a remarkable, fairy-tale-like story of a beautiful Taino girl, cursed by jealous wives to become a mermaid and to swim the seas for centuries, who is entranced by a modern-day small-island fisherman who sings with a guitar in his pirogue. Experiencing adventures on shore as she slowly turns back into a woman, her life and that of her host village will never be the same. An affecting, beautiful novella, truly memorable.