The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey audiobook review — an arrestingly poetic story

Written by Christina Hardyment for The Times on Saturday, January 16th, 2021

The Trinidadian writer Monique Roffey has a sharp, original way of looking at the world. Her sixth novel, which has just won the Costa novel of the year award, is set on a remote Caribbean island in the 1970s. David Baptiste is strumming a guitar and enjoying a spliff while fishing for red snapper when the red-skinned merwoman Aycayia raises her barnacled, seaweed-clotted head from the water, long black hair like ropes, “jook up” with anemones and conch shells.

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The arrestingly poetic narrative is divided between Ben Onwukwe as David and Vivienne Acheampong as Aycayia, and they both excel. The Mermaid of Black Conch is undoubtedly a novel that gains immensely from being heard.