Description

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When a female musician is found murdered on a small tropical island, after a string of similar deaths, outraged local women take matters into their own hands.

The quiet calm of Ash Wednesday morning. Carnival is over. Everyone on the small island of St. Colibri is sleeping peacefully. Everyone except Sora Tanaka, a young pan player lying under the cannonball tree. Sora, a professional musician, had been visiting St. Colibri to take part in the island’s famous steel pan competition. But Sora isn’t asleep; she’s dead: brutally murdered, and still in her costume. And as the women of this island know all too well, Sora is far from the first woman to be killed, and she probably won’t be the last, either. In fact, the problem of women being killed on the island is so bad, there’s even a dedicated unit within the police department: OMWEN, the Office for Murdered Women, headed by Inspector Cuthbert Loveday. 

In this powerful new rewriting of the detective novel, Sora’s death is the last straw and the beginning of something much larger, a "revolution" some are calling it. The event draws together four women who have never before seen each other as allies: a friend of the victim, the organizer of a sex workers’ collective, a local activist, and the prime minister’s wife. Tenderly, sometimes hilariously, Passiontide chronicles how these women join forces and find new ways to help one another.

About the Author

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MONIQUE ROFFEY is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of eight books, five of which are set in Trinidad and the Caribbean region. The Mermaid of Black Conch, her previous novel, won the Costa Book of the Year award. She co-founded Writers Rebel inside Extinction Rebellion. She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and lives in the East End of London.

Praise For…

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“Passiontide is a bold rallying cry of a novel. Vital, enraging and brilliant. I loved it."—Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man

"A vital novel…fiery, funny and ferociously feminist"—Diana Evans, author of A House for Alice

"Monique Roffey's Passiontide skillfully intertwines elements of documentary, mythology, grassroots feminism and farce to craft a riveting narrative centered on women seizing control of their destinies. Guided by its intricately drawn characters and razor-sharp characterization, the novel captivates readers from its opening pages to its compelling conclusion." —Roger Robinson, author of A Portable Paradise, winner of the TS Eliot Prize for poetry

"Passiontide is a resounding testament to the rebellious spirit and bravery of Caribbean women. This is an urgent and deeply necessary novel about women reclaiming their own power and future in the face of gender-based violence. Monique Roffey has written a firebrand womanist text, a battle cry, a rousing vision of change for a better, possible world. By the end of this book, I was ready to join the revolution." —Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

"The spirit of carnival itself is in the writing. A powerful and electrifying novel." —Jason Allen Paisant, author of Self-Portrait as Othello, winner of the TS Eliot Prize

"A brave and strident work of re/imagination by a gifted storyteller." —Anthony Joseph, author of Sonnets for Albert, winner of the TS Eliot Prize

"Monique Roffey is a trailblazer of Caribbean literature, and I will read anything she writes. Passiontide is a reckoning, a protest, and a prayer. I’m writing this from Trinidad, in the aftermath of another murdered woman, asking myself the same question Roffey’s characters ask: which of us will be next? And yet, even as Passiontide captures the pain-laced lives of our women, the book still holds hope in its heart. Maybe, through our shared courage, we can change." —Breanne Mc Ivor, author of The God of Good Looks

"Passiontide has scale, politics and power—a thrilling read, I loved it." —Sadie Jones, author of The Outcast

“A dream of feminist resistance rises, beguiling in its possibility. Meanwhile, the maelstrom of daily Caribbean life swirls [within this novel]: grief, corruption, outrage, violence, excitement, friendship, love."—Claire Adam, author of Golden Child