The Mermaid of Black Conch: A novel from the Vintage Earth collection

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VINTAGE EARTH- A series of transformative novels with the environment at their heart. 'His stomach trembled with desire and fear and wonder because he knew what he'd seen. A woman. Right there, in the water' Near the island of Black Conch, a fisherman sings to himself while waiting for a catch. But David attracts a sea-dweller that he never expected - Aycayia, an innocent young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid. When American tourists capture Aycayia, David rescues her and vows to win her trust. Slowly, painfully, she transforms into a woman again. Yet as their love grows, they discover that the world around them is changing - and they cannot escape the curse for ever VINTAGE EARTH is a series of books that reveals our ever-changing relationship with the environment. These are stories old and young, set in worlds real or imagined, that allow us to explore our connection to the natural world. Transformative, wild, surprising and essential, these novels take on the most urgent story of our times.

Reviews

Bighearted . . . Sentence by sensuous sentence, Roffey builds a verdant, complicated world that it is a pleasure to live inside . . . A fairy tale. But it is a ghost story too * New York Times *
[A] beautiful book... Roffey's writing is lyrical and filled with magic, but there is plenty of bittersweet realism to ground it -- Sophie Dahl * Daily Mail *
A very beautiful, haunting book * Stage *

Author Bio

Monique Roffey was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. She is the author of six novels and a memoir. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year and the Costa Novel Award 2020. It was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021, the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 and the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021, and longlisted for the Orwell Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2021. Her highly acclaimed previous books are sun dog, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2010), Archipelago (winner of the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature 2013), House of Ashes (shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2014), The Tryst and With the Kisses of His Mouth. Monique Roffey is a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and a tutor for the National Writers Centre.