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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, the pink-haired, straight-talking star of the activism scene. 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 often overlooked, 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

Publisher Review

Monique Roffey is a unique talent — BERNARDINE EVARISTO Set on the fictional Caribbean island of St Colibri, Monique Roffey’s Passiontide is an extraordinary exploration of the magical possibilities of collective action, and pulsates with the rebel spirit of women. Activists, sex-workers and obeah women occupy the pages of this brilliantly told narrative of struggle and uprising – which is also a subtle and shape-shifting call to arms — HANNAH LOWE, Costa Book of the Year-winning author of The Kids A daring, mesmerising novel that continually unseats expectation – I was deliciously unsure, throughout, what would happen next — MAGGIE O’FARRELL on The Mermaid of Black Conch