Passiontide

About the book

Four women spark a revolution on a Caribbean island – the electrifying new novel from the Costa-winning author of The Mermaid of Black Conch.

‘Vital, enraging and brilliant. I loved it’ SARAH WINMAN
‘Beautiful and important’ SAFIYA SINCLAIR

Early one morning, at the close of St Colibri’s carnival, a young female steel-pan player is found dead beneath a cannonball tree. It is a discovery that will transform the lives of everyone on this small island.

As the days pass, this shocking event draws together four women. There’s Sharleen, a journalist with an eye for the real story. Her childhood friend Tara, a pink-haired, straight-talking local activist. Gigi, the ‘notorious’ founder of the Port Isabella Sex Workers Collective. And Daisy, first lady of St Colibri, who is haunted by a disappearance in her own family decades ago.

In a community in which women’s voices are often silenced and violence against them is overlooked time after time, the group soon find themselves compelled to speak out – and to act. But even they could never have foreseen the consequences of their courage…

‘A thrilling read, I loved it’
SADIE JONES

‘A vital novel… Fiery, funny and ferociously feminist’
DIANA EVANS

‘The spirit of carnival itself is in the writing… Electrifying’
JASON ALLEN-PAISANT

‘Monique Roffey is a trailblazer of Caribbean literature’
BREANNE MC IVOR