White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Roffey) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Roffey's evocation of Trinidad is extraordinarily vivid, the central relationship beautifully observed.... Deservedly short-listed for the Orange Prize.
Kate Saunders -  Times (London)


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 to corruption to passion and loyalty."
Sunday Telegraph


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.
London Evening Standard


[Roffey's] plot engages the reader through a gradual revelation of the past—slowly forming a melancholy whole."
Financial Times


Engaging.... A firebomb of a book, revealing a slowly disintegrating marriage, a country betrayed and a searing racism that erupts in terrible violence.... This is a stunning book, and its depiction of an aspect of Caribbean life is well worth contemplating.
Cleveland Plain Dealer


A rich and highly engaging novel.
Guardian


Roffey's Orange Prize nominated book is a brilliant, brutal study of a marriage overcast by too much mutual compromise.
Independent


Heart-rending and thought-provoking, you will never again see the Caribbean as just another holiday destination.
Elle Magazine


Roffey's explorations of longtime marriages, race, and the lingering effects of colonialism are insightful and often painful to read.... The true main character in this novel is Trinidad itself: its people, its customs, and its contradictions.
Nancy Pearl -  National Public Radio


Few novels capture the postcolonial culture with such searing honesty as this Caribbean story told through the alternating viewpoints of a white British couple over the last 50 years.... The pitch-perfect voices capture the colonials' racism and sense of entitlement.
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