Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
21 Rating(s)
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Girl, Woman, Other

Author: Bernardine Evaristo

Narrator: Anna-Maria Nabirye

Unabridged: 11 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2019


Synopsis

From one of Britain’s most celebrated writers of color comes a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women.Girl, Woman, Other paints a vivid portrait of the state of post-Brexit Britain, as well as looking back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.The twelve central characters of this multivoiced 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 ninety-three-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.

About Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well winning the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 2020, where she also won Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart in 2020. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited national publications, including The Sunday Time's Style magazine. Her other awards and honours include an MBE in 2009. Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and President of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with her husband.www.bevaristo.com


Reviews

Goodreads review by Katia on October 15, 2019

Update: This predictably has won the Booker 2019 (jointly). And if it is the best book of the shortlist, I am very happy about my decision not to spend time reading any others shortlisted this year. Original review: Unfortunately I ended up disappointed by this book, though I really wanted to like it......more

Goodreads review by Roxane on December 28, 2019

Magnificent novel of such grand scope and ambition. This is a novel about 12 women but it is also a sweeping history of the black British experience. The attention to detail, the structure, the syntax, it’s all brilliant and moving and truly represents what fiction at its finest.......more

Goodreads review by Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer on September 29, 2023

Now shortlisted for the prestigious international 2021 Dublin Literary Award Winner (jointly) of the 2019 Booker Prize - perhaps appropriately given its closing words this is about being together A book I have read and loved three times so I was delighted to be present for its win and to get these p......more


Quotes

“A choral love song to black womanhood.” Elle (London)

“Evaristo has a gift for appraising the lives of her characters with sympathy and grace while gently skewering some of their pretensions.” New York Times

“Voices of black women come to the fore in a swirl of interrelated stories that cover the past century of British life.” Sunday Times (London)

“Nabirye projects the characters superbly: she has a full, low timbre and a powerful directness.” London Times (audio review)

“It takes a talented narrator to capture the voices of all these different people, and Nabirye does each one perfectly.” BookRiot (starred audio review)

“A breathtaking symphony of black women’s voices, a clear-eyed survey of contemporary challenges that’s nevertheless wonderfully life-affirming.” Washington Post

“Nabirye’s warm, rhythmic voice embraces listeners from the first rush of words…and pulls you onto the merry-go-round of personalities and stories. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” AudioFile

“The intermingling stories of generations of black British women told in a gloriously rich and readable free verse will surely be seen as a landmark in British fiction.” The Guardian (London)

“A sparkling new novel of interconnected stories…If you want to understand modern-day Britain, this is the writer to read.” New Statesman

“Brims with vitality…She captures the shared experience that make us, as she puts it in her dedication, ‘members of the human family.’" Financial Times (London)


Awards

  • Booker Prize
  • Gordon Burn Prize
  • Electric Literature
  • Amazon Best Book of the Month
  • Entertainment Weekly Pick
  • Bustle Pick
  • Refinery29 Pick
  • Millions.com Pick
  • Literary Hub Pick
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
  • Vogue Best Book
  • Midwest Indie Bestseller
  • Financial Times Best Book of the Year
  • Shelf Awareness Best Book
  • Entertainment Weekly Best Books of the Year
  • Audible Pick
  • Barack Obama Reading List Pick
  • CBC Pick
  • Ferro-Grumley Award
  • Glass Bell Award
  • Orwell Prize
  • BookRiot Pick
  • Indie Book Award
  • Dublin Literary Award
  • AudioFile Earphones Award