Reviews:
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
Paperback Reviews
“Roffey’s evocation of Trinidad is extraordinary vivid, the central relationship beautifully observed…. deservedly short-listed for the Orange Prize.”
Kate Saunders, The Times
“A rich and highly engaging novel”
The Guardian
“Equal love and attention go into the marriage and the country at the heart of this Orange Prize short-listed novel… It’s a book packed with meaty themes, from racism to corruption to passion and loyalty”
Seven, The Sunday Telegraph
“Roffey’s Orange Prize nominated book is a brilliant, brutal study of a marriage overcast by too much mutual compromise.”
The Independent
“Monique Roffey’s superb novel shatters Caribbean clichés by depicting the explosive tensions of post-colonial Trinidad with fierce affection.”
Metro
“In eloquent, sometimes poetic, always passionate prose, Roffey paints an intriguing and sometimes disturbing picture of Trinidad in the turbulent post-colonial era. Roffey leads unerringly into the dark areas of slavery’s shadow: when racism begets racism, it’s time for the hard questions, and this riveting story of a marriage as it crash-lands asks them fearlessly,”
Sharon Maas, Caribbean Beat.
From the UK
“A searing account of the bitter disappointment suffered by Trinidadians on securing their independence from British colonial rule and of the mixed feelings felt by a white couple who decide to stay on. An earthy, full-blooded piece of writing, steaming with West Indian heat.”
London Evening Standard
“…her plot engages the reader through a gradual revelation of the past – slowly forming a melancholy whole.”
Financial Times
“Heart-rending and thought-provoking. You’ll never see the Caribbean as just another holiday destination.”
Elle
“A beautiful, moving and haunting book.”
Edinburgh Evening News
“A sharply observed and engrossing portrait of a marriage and a country.”
Books Quarterly Waterstones
“The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is a love story wrapped in Trinidad’s political drama. Secrets from a decades-long relationship are revealed as the husband reads his wife’s undelivered letters to Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of the island nation in its infancy.”
Pride magazine
“This is a powerful, juicy novel about the tragedy of Trinidad, one of the most beautiful places on earth. English George blindly loves it, his French wife Sabine bears its burdens of white guilt, the new black political class fails it, and violence is the inevitable result. Personal, political, physical - you feel you've been there.”
Carole Angier, Biographer, Jean Rhys
“From its opening pages, I was entranced by the world of this novel. Monique Roffey's Trinidad is full of strife and languor, violence and also hushed moments of peace, so beautifully and lushly evoked that while I was reading Trinidad became more real for me than my own neighbourhood. What a vibrant, provocative, satisfying novel--I can't stop thinking about it.”
Suzanne Berne, Orange Prize winner
From Trinidad and the Caribbean
“…breaks entirely new ground. It is a major contribution to the new wave of Caribbean writing: energetic, uncompromising, bold in the choice of narrative devices and a great read.”
Olive Senior, Commonwealth Prize winner
“The Age of Innocence in West Indian fiction is over…..Roffey captures Trini irreverence perfectly,”
Simon Lee, Trinidad Guardian
“…daring to speak about an unravelling as it happens…”
Cedriann J. Martin, Trinidad Express
“Roffey undertakes an examination of the Trinidad & Tobago’s Independence Movement and, a generation later, its bitter fruit. ….A millennial portrait of a new republic, WWOGB is a harsh judgement on the failure of the independence experiment.”
Lisa-Allen Agostini, co-editor, Trinidad Noir.
“Vibrant and vivid; passionate and true. This is a powerful tropical mix; a compassionate book that needed to be written,"
Amanda Smyth, author, Black Rock
From Australia
"Days after reading it, I can still smell Trinidad"
Sunday Telegraph
"…an epic and strikingly original love story set in hot, steamy Trinidad"
Australian Women’s Weekly
"This unforgettable love story will enchant the reader
Daily Liberal
"a charming tale that succeeds on many levels with a cast of whimsical characters, atmosphere, intrigue and a jolt of sweet and sour themes"
Courier Mail
"With great characters and a unique story, she draws an intriguing portrait of a marriage that resonates, yes, long after the last page is turned."
Sunday Times
"Roffey creates a terrific sense of place: heat and languor, politics and passion, tropical smells and the heady music of the local patois, all combine to make the novel memorable"
The Age
"Roffey combines a wonderful sense of place – heat, languor, tropical scents and patois – with politics and passion for a remarkable read"
Sunday Tasmanian
Sun Dog
‘It’s rare to read a novel with such great heart,’
Hannah Pool, The Guardian
‘Full of Sensuality... a delightfully unusual debut’
Katie Owen, The Times
‘Enchanting, Roffey handles this modern-day metamorphosis beautifully: her imagery is original, the story completely beguiling’
Eithine Farry, The Daily Mail
‘A mellow tale... Roffey is razor sharp on the daily humdrum... Sun Dog is a striking and original first novel,’
Dazed and Confused
‘Enchanting’
Elle
‘Roffey’s debut is quite magical... a brilliant idea, brilliantly executed’,
The Daily Mirror
‘Few first novels have a protagonist so instantly unforgettable as August Chalmin... Roffey’s writing is as compelling and beguiling as her central character. There will be few first novels this year that have the same sensuous appreciation of language... this is a debut novel to be admired.’
Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
‘A feast to the senses… Monique Roffey’s rich imagination makes the ordinary feel exotic and the extraordinary seem as natural as the seasons. Her book sharpens the appetite for life.’
Lindsay Clarke, author of The Chymical Wedding
