THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE

01.07.2010: The title has been in the Bookseller's Heatseeker's Chart for eight weeks running! 07.06.2010: Simon & Schuster are selling almost 2,000 copies a week now 20.04.2010: Monique Roffey's THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted today for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2010, along with the acclaimed writers Hilary Mantel, Barbara Kingsolver, Rosie Alison, and Lorrie Moore! Though informed by a deep sense of outrage at corruption and betrayed ideals, THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE is most of all a love story - of the tenacious and sometimes tumultuous love between George and Sabine over decades of married life, and of the love-hate relationship with a vibrant, complicated country. Monique Roffey creates a striking yet tender portrait of a marriage, mapped onto the vivid, unsettling landscape of her home country. Peopled with memorable characters, both fictional and real, the lush terrain is itself as powerful as any of the individuals. When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England George is immediately seduced by the beguiling island. But Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease. Her only solace is her growing fixation with Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of Trinidad's new national party, to whom she pours out all her hopes and fears for the future in letters that she never brings herself to send. As the years progress, George and Sabine's marriage endures for better and for worse. When George discovers Sabine's cache of letters, he realises just how many secrets she's kept from him – and he from her – over the decades. And he is seized by an urgent, desperate need to prove his love for her The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is a story that is geographically bounded yet boundless in its understanding of the human spirit. Monique Roffey, who is the author of the widely praised debut SUN DOG (Scribner, 2002), spent her childhood in Trinidad, Papua New Guinea and Australia, and was educated in Surrey and at UEA. She has worked as journalist, and for the The British Council, Amnesty International and the Arvon Foundation. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster and is now RLF Fellow at Sussex University. She is working on another novel, and there will be a strikingly sensual memoir to follow.Monique is great fun, and will be a dream to promote. "An earthy, full-blooded piece of writing, steaming with West Indian heat." --- Evening Standard "Compelling and original. A bruised, sensuous love-letter to Trinidad."--- Maggie Gee "Roffey is a magical storyteller ... Boundless in its understanding of the human spirit. It will resonate with readers everywhere."--- Olive Senior "Heart-rending and thought-provoking."--- Elle "Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read."--- Sarah Hall