The White Woman on the Green Bicycle - Couverture souple

** PRAISE FOR THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE *
'There might be an implicit nod to the Caribbean classic Wide Sargasso Sea, but Monique Roffey's story of contemporary Trinidad seen through European eyes 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. Roffey is a magical storyteller. She so enmeshes the reader in people and events that when the story ends, it becomes hard to let them go. Her fictional creations are no less vivid than the well known Trinidadians we meet in the pages of this book. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is a story that is geographically bounded yet boundless in its understanding of the human spirit. It will resonate with readers everywhere'
Olive Senior
'Compelling and original. A bruised, sensuous love-letter to Trinidad which grippingly unfolds the violent aftermath of colonial rule and also speaks fearlessly of love and hatred across the lines of 'race' and class'
Maggie Gee
'Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read'
Sarah Hall
'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 neighborhood. George and Sabine are just as compelling and convincing, two characters who create so much trouble for each other and yet curiously suit each other so well. What a vibrant, provocative, satisfying novel--I can't stop thinking about it'
Suzanne Berne
'A dramatic and enlightening exploration of colonialism and revolt in Trinidad through the perceptions of two main characters caught up in a tumultuous history. It's also an honest and moving anatomy of a long marriage, its comforts and costs. What is very striking is the equal compassion in the portrayals of a faithless, selfish man and a disappointed woman -- Monique's merciful identification with both of them reminds me of Toni Morrison'
Dr Linda Anderson, Open University
'Exotic locations also feature in Monique Roffey's Trinidad-set The White Woman on the Green Bicycle. Sabine, a 1950s housewife fresh from England, finds herself alone and unhappy when she arrives on the stifling magical tropical island, and the political upheaval of the time does little to ease her pain. But a love affair does, as it unfolds over 50 years. Heart-rending and thought-provoking, you will never again see the Caribbean as just another holiday destination'
Elle
‘When Sabine and George Harwood move to Trinidad in 1956, they react to island life very differently. While George thrives, Sabine feels lonely, so pours her heart out in letters to a politician she’s fixated on. Part romance, part thriller, this thoughtful read spans 50 years’
Star magazine
‘A sharply observed and engrossing portrait of a marriage and a country’
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
'Monique Roffey's understanding of the human character is boundless. Gentle and sensual, stinging and frustrating in equal measures. Roffey weaves a story of human love and determination, and the emotion and impact of an evolving society – both of which can't escape the powerful hold of the land they're set in. A beautiful, moving and haunting book'
Edinburgh Evening News
‘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
'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'
Evening Standard
'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 of Jean Rhys)

'multicoloured, hot, vivid, magical and dangerous'
Bookgroup website
'Takes the reader into the political awakening of Trinidad... her plot engages the reader through a gradual revelation of the past'
Financial Times
'Move[s] literary awareness and focus of this conflicted Creole space firmly into its bewildering contemporary state of fear, loathing, and dark beauty...
The Age of Innocence in West Indian fiction is over. The romanticised community, whether in Selvon’s early work or even Naipaul in his Miguel Street mode, has finally been subsumed into a gritty and appropriate Creole metafiction... Yet [WWOGB is] animated by a love of this crazy, wounded space...'
Trinidad Guardian
‘Her plot engages the reader through a gradual revelation of the past - slowly forming a melancholy whole’
Financial Times
''Vibrant and vivid; passionate and true. This is a powerful tropical mix; a compassionate book that needed to be written'
Amanda Smyth, author of BLACK ROCK
'dar[es] to speak about an unravelling as it happens'
Trinidad Express
'Roffey undertakes an examination of the Trinidad & Tobago 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
'Days after reading it, I can still smell Trinidad... an intriguing portrait of a marriage that resonates long after the last page is turned'
Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
'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 (Australia)
'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 long after the last page is turned'
Sunday Times (Australia)
'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 (Australia)
'Roffey combines a wonderful sense of place – heat, languor, tropical scents and patois – with politics and passion for a remarkable read'
Sunday Tasmanian
'Roffey's evocation of Trinidad is extraordinarily vivid, the central relationship beautifully observed - deservedly short listed for the Orange Prize'
The Times 1/05

'A fantastically good read. It's a sexy book'
Daisy Goodwin quoted in Guardian 21/4
‘A rich and highly engaging novel’ Guardian 22/5
‘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 and corruption to passion and loyalty’ Seven Sunday Telegraph 23/5
‘A brilliant, brutal study of a marriage overcast by too much mutual compromise’ Independent 28/5
‘Roffey’s evocation of Trinidad is extraordinarily vivid, the central relationship beautifully observed – deservedly short listed for the Orange Prize’ The Times 1/05
‘A fantastically good read. It’s a sexy book’ Daisy Goodwin quoted in Guardian 21/4
'Monique Roffey's superb novel shatters Caribbean cliches by depicting the explosive tensions of post-colonial Trinidad with fierce affection.....Her intoxicating and gritty prose captures much of the harshness and wonder of West Indian life'
Metro, 12/5
'In eloquent, sometimes poetic, always passionate prose, she 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 harsh questions, and this riveting story of a marriage as it crash lands asks them fearlessly'
Caribbean Beat magazine, April 2010
'Fascinating, provocative, funny, beautiful. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle has an irresistible central plot device... Roffey, ambitiously, has done something remarkable. She manages to deal with all the major social problems besetting contemporary Trinidad in recent years via the prism of two characters who feel at odds with their environment... does what few novels successfully pull off: capturing, like a newsreel, the state of a society'
Caribbean Review of Books
'drew me into the lushness and pain of another world'
Liz Jensen, Telegraph Books of the Year

When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England George instantly takes to their new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the racial segregation and the imminent dawning of a new era. Her only solace is her growing fixation with Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of Trinidad's new national party, to whom she pours out all her hopes and fears for the future in letters that she never brings herself to send. As the years progress, George and Sabine's marriage endures for better or worse. When George discovers Sabine's cache of letters, he realises just how many secrets she's kept from him -- and he from her -- over the decades. And he is seized by an urgent, desperate need to prove his love for her, with tragic consequences…

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is set over fifty years in Trinidad, from the vibrant post-war optimism of the mid-1950s, when the country was on the verge of gaining independence, to a much bleaker period at the turn of the twenty-first century, where gang-related violence and murder happen on the streets every day. With real-life characters, a love story for the ages and a vivid backdrop -- at times magical; at times exquisite; at times dangerous -- this is a deeply moving and unforgettable read.