The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey wins the Costa Novel Award
The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
2020 Costa Book Awards winner for the Novel Award
We are delighted that Monique Roffey has won the Costa Novel Award for her magnificent seventh book The Mermaid of Black Conch! The judges called The Mermaid of Black Conch, which has previously been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, ‘a story of rare imagination and exciting scale – an adventure and a fable, a glorious myth that tells a far bigger story.’
Monique, and the other Category winners were announced on Monday 4th January on BBC Radio 4 Front Row. The overall Costa Book of the Year will be announced on 26th January.
About the book:
April 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch. David, a fisherman, sings to himself in his pirogue, waiting for a catch – and attracts a sea-dweller he doesn’t expect. Aycayia, a centuries old mermaid, is drawn to his singing. But her curiosity is her undoing when she is caught by American tourists… David rescues her and hides her away, where she slowly, painfully turns into a woman.
But in the tiny community of St Constance, tongues will wag, and dark forces begin to circle David and Aycayia. A terrible storm brews, and it becomes clear that the mermaid cannot remain on Black Conch forever...
About the author:
Monique Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, British writer. Her novels, which include The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and House of Ashes, have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Encore Award and the Costa Novel Award; she won the OCM BOCAS Award for Caribbean Literature for Archipelago in 2013. The Mermaid of Black Conch is her sixth novel and based on a Taino legend about a beautiful young woman cursed to live as a mermaid. After securing a publishing deal with Peepal Tree Press, Monique crowdfunded the fee for her publicity campaign, hitting her target in just three weeks after support from authors including Ingrid Persaud, Lisa O’Donnell, Lana Citron, Justin Hill, Jane Harris, Liz Jensen, Jude Cook, Matt Thorne, Toby Litt and Leone Ross.
For more on The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey, visit Peepal Tree Press.
