The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

Praise

“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.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“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, NPR

“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.”
—Booklist

“A rich and highly engaging novel.”
—The Guardian

“Roffey’s evocation of Trinidad is extraordinarily vivid, the central relationship beautifully observed… deservedly short-listed for the Orange Prize.”
—Kate Saunders, The Times (London)

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

“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.”
—Seven, The Sunday Telegraph

“Roffey’s Orange Prize nominated book is a brilliant, brutal study of a marriage overcast by too much mutual compromise.”
—The Independent

“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.” 
—The London Evening Standard

“Her plot engages the reader through a gradual revelation of the past – slowly forming a melancholy whole.” 
—Financial Times

“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