Book jacket blurb:
This is Britain as you’ve never read it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.
From the top of the country to the bottom, across more than a century of change and growth and struggle and life, Girl, Woman, Other follows twelve very different characters on an entwined journey of discovery.
It is future, it is past. It is fiction, it is history.
It is a novel about who we are now.
Opinion:
The book tells us about the lives of 12 Black women in Britain, mostly set today but on occasion reaching back 100 years. Each chapter focuses on one woman, with crossovers (for example mum Amma and daughter Yazz) helping to develop the narrative. It’s not really a story, but an exploration of life through some exceptionally vibrant characters.
The way Evaristo has written their histories and descriptions I could see and hear them. Some of the women I loved, some were less likable – I’ll let you decide for yourself who fits where!
The style is not something I have encountered before, no punctuation, no sentences, and I have to admit that for the first few pages I struggled to get into the rhythm of the book. However, it quickly took hold, and reading felt more like I was listening to the innermost thoughts tumbling out of these women’s minds.
We don’t naturally think in perfect punctuation and reading this book felt like I was listening to a friend tell me her own history.
This is one I will definitely be returning to, I feel there is yet more these women can share with me.
- Fiction
- Womens
- Award-winning
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