"Author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, Rathbone Folio Prize 2021 longlisted, Winner of the Costa Best Novel Award 2020 & Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2020
London, midsummer night. Jane and Bill meet the mysterious Lilah in a bar. She entrances the couple with half-true, mixed up tales about her life. At closing time, Jane makes an impulsive decision to invite Lilah back to their home. But Jane has made a catastrophic error of judgement, for Lilah is a skilled and ruthless predator, the likes of which few encounter in a lifetime. Isolated and cursed, Jane and Bill are forced to fight for each other, and, in doing so, discover their covert desires.
Part psychological thriller, part contemporary magical realism, The Tryst revisits the tale of Adam s first wife, Lilith, to examine the secrets of an everyday marriage."
"Author of the winner of the Costa Book of the Year award The Mermaid of Black Conch.
August Chalmin feels the weather like no one else. A large awkward recluse, with bright orange hair and sun-shy eyes, August hides himself away behind the counter of a Shepherd's Bush deli. One winter's day two things change his life forever: his mother's ex-lover Cosmo shambles back into his life, and he discovers a rash on his arm which looks like frost. A rash which is frost. As Cosmo raises questions about August's identity, August finds himself changing with the seasons, in a journey that takes him deep into his past and to the very centre of his soul...
“An ingenious fable about the nature of love, truth and perception.” TRAVIS ELBOROUGH, author of Atlas of Improbable Places"
"Escape to the ocean with the entrancing, unforgettable winner of the Costa Book of the Year.
Features original music created for the audiobook.
'Mesmerising' MAGGIE O'FARRELL
'A unique talent' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
'Wonderful' BRIDGET COLLINS
'Brilliant' CLARE CHAMBERS
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 . . .
'A bittersweet love story.’ BBC News
'A fiercely modern mermaid story' The Times
'Wondrous . . . A striking achievement' Sunday Times
'Not your standard mermaid' MARGARET ATWOOD"
"Author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, Rathbone Folio Prize nominated, Winner of the Costa Best Novel Award & Winner of the Costa Book of the Year
The City of Silk is restless. During the post-independence era, a new beginning was denied to the people of the small island of Sans Amen. Corruption set in and has been endemic for too long.
Then, one hot July evening the Leader, the self-appointed head of a fringe spiritual group, gathers his followers and tells them: ‘Today, we will be making history. For ourselves, and our fellow countrymen of Sans Amen.’ And so a brotherhood of half-trained men and boys take up arms and storm two of the most important buildings in the city: the House of Power and the television station. Together, they will take back what is rightfully theirs.
Caught up in the mayhem is Ashes. A quiet, scholarly, family man, like the others, he has been swept up by the Leader’s charisma and rhetoric. But now that words have turned to action, he soon finds he’s not so sure about this insurrection.
And trapped inside the government building with the rebel boy soldiers is Aspasia Garland, a government minister. A proud woman, a mother of a son the same age as the teenage gunmen, she sees much of her son’s need for stable parenting in these boys with guns in their hands.
'The kind of Caribbean fiction Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote about - a vividness of imagination which is at once so terrible, so beautiful and so compelling that it shows you exactly how things are' Kei Miller
'Roffey's writing is raw and visceral' Observer
'Goes to the heart of questions of political temptation and folly; it grips from beginning to end' Sunday Telegraph
'Gripping' The Times
'Absorbing' Independent
'Vivid' Guardian
'Powerful' Observer
‘Monique Roffey is a unique talent and the most daring and versatile of writers' Bernardine Evaristo"
Join our community for the latest bookish news, reading recommendations, exclusive opening extracts, author events and competitions. It\'s all free. And enter a monthly draw to win a £50 Gift Card. See past winners here
