Shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Set in the lush surroundings of Trinidad this story follows the marriage of a couple who despite their love for each other find they have gradually slipped away from each other. Will their love be strong enough to bring everything right or there too many other factors in the way?
“A very unusual and very vivid book… It’s completely original, a richly imagined portrait of a country. Once you’ve read it you’ll want to go to Trinidad. It’s extraordinary.”Daisy Goodwin (Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 judging panel)
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...
Monique Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born writer. Her novels have been translated into five languages and short-listed for major awards including the Orange Prize, COSTA Fiction Award, Encore Award, and the Orion Award. In 2013, Archipelago won the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature. Her memoir, With the Kisses of his Mouth, was published in 2011. She is a Lecturer on the MFA in the Novel at Manchester Metropolitan University. She divides her time between the East end of London and Port of Spain, Trinidad.
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