Book Club Guide

The Mermaid of Black Conch

by Monique Roffey · 2020 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Caribbean folklore — a mermaid's curse and what it means to be transformed by jealousy
Connection across the boundary between human and myth
A community's response to what it cannot categorise

About this book

A mermaid, cursed decades earlier by jealous women, is caught by fishermen off a Caribbean island — and a local fisherman who frees her finds his life transformed by a connection that crosses the boundary between human and myth. Roffey's Costa Book of the Year-winning novel draws on Caribbean folklore to tell a story about love, transformation and what communities do with what they cannot categorise.

Published in 2020, The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year — the overall prize across all categories. Roffey is from Trinidad and has described drawing on Caribbean folklore traditions about mermaids and transformation.

Discussion questions

The mermaid was cursed by jealous women decades earlier — transformed for being too beautiful, too desired. How does Roffey use this origin story — what is she saying about how communities punish women, even mythologically?
The fisherman who frees her develops a relationship that crosses the boundary between human and something else entirely. How does Roffey develop this connection — as romance, as something stranger, or as both?
The novel is rooted in specifically Caribbean folklore and setting. How does Roffey render this — and what does the mermaid figure mean within this specific cultural context, as opposed to more familiar European mermaid stories?
The community's reaction to the mermaid — fear, fascination, exploitation — reveals different aspects of how people respond to what doesn't fit their categories. How does Roffey develop these different responses?
The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Book of the Year. What does it do that earns this recognition — and how does it use myth and folklore to address very human questions about desire, transformation and belonging?