The Mermaid of Black Conch: The spellbinding winner of the Costa Book of the Year as read on BBC Radio 4

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However, this new life will take a while to adjust and cannot last forever, not when you’ve been cursed by a goddess. And inexplicably overlooked for the Booker Prize and Women's Prize, which says rather more about those prizes than the book. But her transformation is aborted, the curse prevails, and the community prepares to sell her to the Americans. As David and his friends form a protective guard around Aycayia, the god Huracan marshals all his forces to sweep her away. The departure of Roffey’s mermaid unleashes the elements – a warning to an over-heated world.

I mean, it’s such a complex response to such a complex issue, right? For me this book was just amazing, this complex love story being shared about these two couples whose lives are intertwined. But that these relationships are both impacted by forces outside of their immediate impact and control, primarily the curse of those women centuries ago and the lingering impact of colonization, amongst other things.This could have illuminated the narcissism-born blindspots of the explorers and their successors. This could have been a subversive commentary on the damage colonialism has done to generations of Indigenous and Afro Carribean people; lost knowledge, culture, faith, science, etc. This could have been an examination of the fear and exploitation of young women's sexuality, and male entitlement to feminine bodies. This could have been a parable for the effects unfettered capitalism has had on tropical regions, which have been hit head-on with the consequences of climate change already. This could have torn the whole Manifest Destiny idea a new one. This is a book about transformation and change. It's about how Aycayia changes and in her encounter with others (David Baptiste, a white woman, Arcadia Rain, and her deaf son Reggie, among others) transforms them. So in some ways it's about the transformative power and potential of myth and storytelling and love. Writing style was okay, if self-objectifying. Content was out of touch. As far as I'm concerned, this is an accidental horror novel. Miss Rain nodded. “Sometimes, we women not fair even in our own thoughts about ourselves. You men born from us, and yet you assume power. Is we who give you that power. You see that man, Life? That man make me wait, make me patient.” Rounded down from roughly 4.5 stars ⭐️ Going into this book I never expected I would love it as much as I did.

And so what did we think of this unusual novel that weaves together sex, misogny and race with love, music, magic and myth, plus it throws in a few spliffs, a virginal mermaid, a crooked cop, and a chorus of vindictive women. All that in one book? Yes, indeed. Did it make for a good book club book? Was Kate able to cope with reading all the sex? If you buy a book about a mermaid is it then ok to complain it’s unrealistic? Listen in to find out.One day while David is singing, he attracts the attention of “sea-dweller” he thought only existed in fairy tales and island “ole talk”. David sees the Mermaid, goes through a range of emotions one being curiosity. Daily he revisits the spot where he first sights the Mermaid, she begins showing up to hear him sing and play the guitar. They form a sort of bond that continues for weeks until the Mermaid begins listening for the hum of David’s boat. There are also deeper themes about colonialism, racial tragic history—enslavement, immigration, indigenous genocide, freedom, and womanhood. But no two readers are alike and perhaps you will enjoy this book more than I did. Here are some direct quotes to help you decide:

Besides, Grace says, laughing, those who levelled accusations at her of having made Māori “the good guys” of Potiki, and white New Zealanders “the bad guys”, did not realise she had never specified what race the greedy developers in the story were. Priscilla sat in his office chair, one leg up on his desk. One hand rested on her pussy. Teacher's Pet, I wanna be Teacher's Pet... with a hit song “Part of Your World” that every little girl sang at home ‘over-and-over’ driving her parents crazy ….

For me, life is made up of numerous influential voices and ideas: Buddhist dharma; the Caribbean lexicon; the tarot; text-speak; the secular world of London; the East End and its mosques and multiple immigrant histories, a part of London with its own vernacular… My life feels utterly fluid and diverse and yet works as a whole. So, everyday life shows me a non-linear form and that it’s utterly viable to compile a novel in the same way, to reflect this … We can do better than this.” He looked her way, “This?” “History or love. One must win. I cannot fight history. I cannot. You win. I’m bad. I always will be. But we can do better letting history win out over love.” This was my first book I’ve read (listened) by author Monique Roffey. Her writing is gorgeous and completely engrossing. What makes the novel sing is how Roffey fleshes out these mythical goings-on with pin-sharp detail from the real world, as Aycayia, hidden away in David’s bedroom, navigates the perils (and pleasures) of life on land. After her tail rots, she relearns to walk in an old pair of David’s green suede Adidas. Her nostrils bleed “all kind of molluscs and tiny crabs”. David worries that the smell and the noise of her wordless song might attract nosy neighbours, not least Priscilla, whose mean-spirited meddling injects a dose of malevolent comic energy into the action. As I said to my book group, anytime a character encounters a fearsome, mythic sea creature and their first thought is basically, "I'd like to get with that," the entire novel should then be devoted to what exactly is going on with that character. Loneliness? Hedonism? Need to please? Need to conquer everything one sees? It's not a setup for the love story of the century, is what I'm saying.