Roffey has written six novels and a memoir.
Sun Dog (2002), set in west London, is a
magical realist tale of psychological estrangement, identity loss and subsequent individuation.
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2009; shortlisted for the 2010
Orange Prize and the 2011
Encore Award), is the story of European ex-colonials living in Trinidad during the island's early Independence years and their subsequent process of creolisation. It was hailed by
Commonwealth Prize-winner
Olive Senior, who said: :"…it breaks entirely new ground. It is a major contribution to the New Wave of Caribbean writing: energetic, uncompromising, bold in the choice of narrative devices and a great read." It has been published to critical acclaim in the UK, United States and Europe. Roffey's 2011 memoir,
With the Kisses of His Mouth, is a personal account of a mid-life quest for sexual liberation and self-identification other than the aspirant hetero-normative model. It has been characterised as "a subversive work that transcends the author's personal story: it stands alone in the chasm that has opened between feminist literature and the belles du jour brigade." Her novel
Archipelago, published in July 2012, is set in the aftermath of a flood and examines climate change from the perspective of a man from the southern Caribbean.
Andrew Miller (
Costa Award winner, 2011) said: "
Archipelago is beautifully done. There's a warmth to it, an exuberance and a wisdom, that makes the experience of reading it feel not just pleasurable but somehow instructive. It's funny, sometimes bitingly poignant. And how well Roffey writes a male central character. A brilliant piece of storytelling."
Archipelago won the 2013
OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, whose judges commended it for its "exploration of the greater Caribbean space in which is embedded a real-life story of trauma and loss and ultimately redemption that is both contemporary and compelling". The novel was judged the winner of the fiction category of the prize, and at the
Bocas Lit Fest was announced on 27 April 2013 as the best overall book from all categories. Roffey's 2014 novel,
House of Ashes, is a fictionalised account of the events surrounding the
1990 attempted coup in Trinidad. Ronald Adamolekun, for
Wasafiri magazine, said:
House of Ashes will be remembered as the most authoritative fictionalised account of the 1990 Trinidad and Tobago revolution, arguably the darkest moment of the island’s history."
The Telegraph called it "vigorous, grimly absorbing tale", while
The Observers reviewer concluded: "Roffey's writing is raw and visceral and she thrusts her readers headlong into the very middle of the action, her pen as powerful as the butts of the guns shoved in her hostages' backs." A fifth novel,
The Tryst, published in July 2017, was sold twice, first to
Simon & Schuster UK, and then to independent press Dodo Ink. Roffey worked on it, on and off, for 14 years. In it, she revisits the tale of Adam's first wife, Lilith, and examines the common but taboo issue of celibacy within marriage. Like much of Roffey's work, it weaves magical realism into a contemporary setting. Many well-known literary writers, sex writers and sex workers have applauded
The Tryst.
DBC Pierre said of it: "Not a shade of grey within a mile of this book. What makes
The Tryst an unexploded virus isn't just the quality and brightness of Roffey's writing on sex, even as it uncovers inner glades between flesh and fantasy where sex resides – but the taunting clarity of why those glades stay covered. A throbbing homewrecker of a tale, too late to call Fifty Shades of Red." Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne said, "The Tryst is a gorgeously written page-turner, deceptive in its simplicity. Monique Roffey writes an erotically charged fable that mixes the real with the mythological, a truly unsettling and disturbing novel. She writes about lust and sex in a way that is thrillingly sexy and beautiful."
Rowan Pelling, editor of
The Amorist, also said: "
The Tryst is a sly, feral, witty, offbeat erotic novella that unsettles the reader, even as it arouses. There are sex scenes of breathtaking audacity. What would any of us do if an irresistible sex daemon broke and entered our domestic lives, leaving havoc in her amoral wake? Monique Roffey knows that the real question about human desire is whether we even recognise our deepest yearnings. How can anyone resist what they have never even dreamt of?"
The Mermaid of Black Conch was first published in April 2020 by
Peepal Tree Press. It won the 2020
Costa Book Award for Novel and Costa Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the
Rathbones/Folio Prize (2021), the
Goldsmiths Prize (2020), and the
Republic of Consciousness Prize (2021). The novel was published in paperback by
Vintage Books, in June 2021. it featured on the
BBC Radio 4 programme
A Book at Bedtime in August 2021. Dorothy Street Pictures bought the film rights and a screen adaptation will be developed by
Film Four. Roffey's follow-up to
The Mermaid of Black Conch was 2024's
Passiontide. Inspired by a real-life case of femicide, it was described by
Kit Fan in
The Guardian as "a mission-driven novel with an upfront political agenda....a devastating critique of the interrelationship between religion, sexism and colonialism."
Lindsey Hilsum's review in the
Times Literary Supplement stated that while the book "has a strong feminist, anti-racist message, Roffey avoids preachiness", concluding: "In her author’s note Monique Roffey points out that, according to the NGO Womankind Worldwide, 81,000 girls and women are killed every year – half of them by an intimate partner or family member.
Passiontide is a distinctly Trinidadian novel, but it could have been set anywhere." == Style and themes ==