Two writers from Trinidad and Tobago nominated for Costa Book Awards 2020

Two Trinidad and Tobago writers, Monique Roffey and Ingrid Persaud have been nominated for the 2020 Costa Book Awards.

Roffey’s sixth novel, The Mermaid of Black Conch (Peepal Tree Press), is also nominated for the Costa Novel Award, while Persaud’s Love After Love (Faber) made it to the Costa First Novel Award shortlist.

Both signed by award-winning writers, the titles previously won significant international critical acclaim because their releases earlier this year.

This is nomination is Roffey’s second time on the Costa Novel Award shortlist. She was at earlier shortlisted six years ago with her third book Council of Ashes (2014), drawn from the events of the 1990 tried coup.

Roffey’s newest work weaves myth and magic realism collectively to tell a story of a cursed woman denied a ceremony of passage, surrendering to romantic and sensual love, said a media release. Aycayia, a centuries-old mermaid, is drawn to the singing of a fisherman, David. But her interest is her undoing when American sightseers catch her. David saves her and protects her, where she gradually turns into a woman.

Persaud’s Love After Love was expected since the March 2019 revelation by Faber & Faber publishing house that it had won the debut novel by the winner of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and also for the 2018 BBC Short Story Award.

It is the story of an unusual family unit – Betty Ramdin, a widow, her son Solo and their lodger Mr Chetan – depending and loving on one another until a secret mistakenly caught drives them alone and forces them to violate point.