The Mermaid of Black Conch
*This enchanting tale of a cursed mythical creature and the lonely fisherman who falls in love with her is “a daring, mesmerizing novel…single-handedly bringing magic realism up-to-date” (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet). “Sentence by sensuous sentence, Roffey builds a verdant, complicated world that is a pleasure to live inside…. You might start to believe in the existence of mermaids.” —The New York Times* In 1976, David is fishing off the island of Black Conch when he comes upon a creature he doesn’t expect: a mermaid by the name of Aycayia. Once a beautiful young woman, she was cursed by jealous wives to live in this form for the rest of her days. But after the mermaid is caught by American tourists, David rescues and hides her away in his home, finding that, once out of the water, she begins to transform back into a woman. Now David must work to win Aycayia’s trust while she relearns what it is to be human, navigating not only her new body but also her relationship with others on the island—a difficult task after centuries of loneliness. As David and Aycayia grow to love each other, they juggle both the joys and the dangers of life on shore. But a ling
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In 1976, fisherman David Baptiste plays his guitar from his small boat off the village of Black Conch and pulls in a centuries-old Taino woman cursed into a mermaid. After American sport fishermen haul her ashore, David hides her in a bathtub on a hilltop, where her tail begins to fall away.
The Mermaid of Black Conch was written by Monique Roffey and published in 2020. It won the Costa Book of the Year, making Roffey the first British-Trinidadian writer to win the prize.
Yes. The Mermaid of Black Conch is a Caribbean-set magical realist novel that draws on indigenous Taino mythology. The mermaid Aycayia is rooted in actual folklore from the region.
The Mermaid of Black Conch is 230 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Mermaid of Black Conch takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
The Mermaid of Black Conch is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Mermaid of Black Conch is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
