Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other

Notify me when the book’s added
To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate. How do I upload a book?
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE

“A must-read about modern Britain and womanhood … An impressive, fierce novel about the lives of black British families, their struggles, pains, laughter, longings and loves … Her style is passionate, razor-sharp, brimming with energy and humor. There is never a single moment of dullness in this book and the pace does not allow you to turn away from its momentum.” —Booker Prize Judges

Bernardine Evaristo is the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and the first black woman to receive this highest literary honor in the English language. Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.

The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.
This book is currently unavailable
422 printed pages
Original publication
2019
Publication year
2019
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
👍👎

Impressions

  • Jumkoshared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    🎯Worthwhile
    🚀Unputdownable

Quotes

  • forgetenothas quoted3 years ago
    Penelope came to the conclusion that marrying someone when you’re in love with them was perhaps not such a good idea, better to wait a few years (ten, twenty, thirty, never?) to see if you’re still compatible after the passion has subsided and reality set in
  • deehas quoted4 years ago
    she listened as they debated what it meant to be a black woman

    what it meant to be a feminist when white feminist organizations made them feel unwelcome

    how it felt when people called them nigger, or racist thugs beat them up

    what it was like when white men opened doors or gave up their seats on public transport for white women (which was sexist), but not for them (which was racist)

    Amma could relate to their experiences, began to join in with the refrains of, we hear you, sister, we’ve all been there, sister
  • Anaghahas quotedlast year
    very slow foreign films with no plot and lots of atmosphere because ‘the best films are about expanding our understanding of what it means to be human, they’re a journey into pushing the boundaries of form, an adventure beyond the clichés of commercial cinema, an expression of our deeper consciousness’

On the bookshelves

fb2epub
Drag & drop your files (not more than 5 at once)