Girl, Woman, Other

Girl, Woman, Other is the eighth novel written by Bernardine Evaristo, published in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton. It follows the lives of 12 characters in the United Kingdom over the course of several decades. The book was awarded the 2019 Booker Prize and has since received twenty-five Book of the Year and Decade honours, alongside recognition as one of Barack Obama's Top 19 Books for 2019 and Roxane Gay's Favourite Book of 2019.[3] It currently features on many prize lists, including winning best fiction book at the 2020 the British Book Awards[4] and on the shortlist for The Women's Prize.[5]

Girl, Woman, Other
First edition cover
AuthorBernardine Evaristo
Audio read byAnna-Maria Nabirye[1]
Cover artistNeil Kenlock (photos)[2]
Ali Campbell (design)[2]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreLGBT fiction
Set inUnited Kingdom
PublisherHamish Hamilton
Publication date
2 May 2019
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback) and e-book
Pages464
Awards2019 Booker Prize
ISBN978-0-241-36490-1
OCLC1114328373
823/.92
LC ClassPR6055.V25 G57 2019

Overview

The book follows the lives of each of 12 principal characters (mostly black women) as they navigate the world. The book is divided into four chapters, each containing episodes about three women who are connected directly to one another in some way, the majority as relatives (such as mother and daughter). Although each character has their own chapter set across a particular time, their lives intertwine in numerous ways – from friends and relatives to chance acquaintances. The book opens with a playwright, Amma, anticipating the opening of her new production, The Last Amazon of Dahomey, at a theatre in London. The play is based around the fictional life of a Dahomey Amazon. The last chapter of the book takes place at the party that follows the play's opening night, in which many of the characters are present and interact, though not necessarily knowing one another. The epilogue contains a plot twist in which two of the book's twelve principal characters discover they are mother and daughter and meet for the first time in old age. As they meet, the story concludes:

this is not about feeling something or about speaking words

this is about being

together

Some of the themes explored in the characters lives are feminism, politics, patriarchy, success, relationships and sexuality. [6] Asked about her motivations in writing the work, Evaristo said:

I wanted to put presence into absence. I was very frustrated that black British women weren’t visible in literature. I whittled it down to 12 characters – I wanted them to span from a teenager to someone in their 90s, and see their trajectory from birth, though not linear. There are many ways in which otherness can be interpreted in the novel – the women are othered in so many ways and sometimes by each other. I wanted it to be identified as a novel about women as well.[7]

Themes

Intersectionality

The novel explores how race, sexuality, gender, history and economic stratification intersect to define the experiences of the women in the novel. At university Yazz establishes a group of friends who share the commonality of being people of colour. She becomes hostile to Courtney, a caucasian Cornish girl, joining their group, arguing she would not be able to relate to the experience of being 'one of the few brown girls on a white campus'. On a trip to London to visit her friend Nenet, the daughter of an Egyptian diplomat, she discovers that her friend is profoundly wealthy, and has had her university papers written for her by a retired professor. Yazz is alienated by the experience, and recognises that even as a woman of colour, her life is more similar to that of her lower middle class caucasian friend. Courtney, herself born into a farming background, addresses the intersectional flaws of only considering the racial element of social privilege. Citing Roxane Gay she states:

"Roxane Gay warned against the idea of playing 'privilege Olympics' and wrote in Bad Feminist that privilege is relative and contextual, and I agree, Yazz, I mean, where does it all end? is Obama less privileged than a white hillbilly growing up in a trailer park with a junkie single mother and a jailbird father? is a severely disabled person more privileged than a Syrian asylum-seeker whose been tortured? Roxane argues that we have to find a new discourse for discussing inequality."

This idea is sustained throughout the book. Despite the 12 women in the book experiencing various forms of oppression, many of them contribute to intersectional forms of exclusionism because of their life experiences, class and social standing. Many of the characters other each other. Dominique's reductive view of Shirley as a 'dry heterosexual schoolteacher' closes her off from discovering how similar their life experiences have been. Penelope, who through most of her life is in fact unaware of her light-skinned black parentage, others Bummi, simply describing as her 'African cleaner' (the former having been raised by her adoptive parents to believe that whites were the master race). When Penelope discovers her true African heritage (Hattie), she abandons her racist sentiments, realising Hattie's story is undeniably intertwined with her own.

Suggesting a solution for Gay's new discourse for discussing inequality, Evaristo provides the narratives of these 12 black women so that readers can sincerely relate to their experiences on a humanistic level rather than reducing them to a stereotype.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 57% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, while the remaining 43% expressed "positive" impressions.[8]

Emily Rhodes of the Financial Times said that "Evaristo writes sensitively about how we raise children, how we pursue careers, how we grieve and how we love", while Johanna Thomas-Corr of the Sunday Times describes Girl, Woman, Other as "...a triumphantly wide-ranging novel, told in a hybrid of prose and poetry, about the struggles, longings, conflicts and betrayals of 12 (mostly) black women and non-binary character." According to Sarah Ladipo Manyika, writing for the New Statesman, Evaristo "continues to expand and enhance our literary canon. If you want to understand modern day Britain, this is the writer to read."[8]

Accolades

Girl, Woman, Other was joint winner (with Margaret Atwood's The Testaments) of the 2019 Booker Prize,[9][10] and was shortlisted for the 2019 Gordon Burn Prize.[11] The Booker Judges described the work as "a must-read about modern Britain and womanhood" and [12] named one of the top ten books of 2019 by the Washington Post.[13]

At present, Girl, Woman, Other is one of Barack Obama's 19 Favourite Books of 2019[14] and Roxane Gay's Favourite Book of 2019[15], and is the 12th bestselling hardback fiction book in the UK. It stands as a Sunday Times Bestseller and Book of the Decade for The Guardian,[16][17] and identified as Book of the Year twenty-five times including Oprah Magazine's Best LGBT book,[18] TIME's 100 Must Read Books[19], CBC's 28 Best International Fiction,[20][21] Elle's 13 Best Feminist Books,[22] Amazon Editors’ Pick of the Year and Apple Books Best of the Year, as well as The Times' Best Audio Book of 2019.[23] [24]

Evaristo received recognition as one of the Financial Times's Women in 2019:the game changers [25] and is currently shortlisted for The Women's Prize[26], British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year[27] and Publishing Triangle Awards (USA).[28] Featured in OkayAfrica's 100 Women 2020[29] she is also longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction,[30]Glass Bell Awards,[31] Australian Book Industry Awards[32] and Visionary Honours Awards.[33][34]

gollark: It's weird how sometimes the codes seem so fitting.
gollark: Oh, right, the code.
gollark: Ah, a bolt dragon, I see.
gollark: NOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME!
gollark: Wait, what?

References
  1. "Girl, Woman, Other". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  2. "Girl, Woman, Other". Bernardine Evaristo website. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  3. "Candice Carty-Williams named first black woman to win top book prize". The Irish News. 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  4. "The Women's Prize 2020 Shortlist". Women's Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  5. Frazer-Carroll, Micha (8 May 2019). "Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo review – joy as well as struggle". The Guardian.
  6. Sethi, Anita (28 April 2019). "Interview: Bernardine Evaristo: 'I want to put presence into absence'". The Guardian - books. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  7. "Girl Woman Other". Book Marks. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  8. Flood, Alison (14 October 2019), "Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo share Booker prize 2019", The Guardian.
  9. Tepper, Anderson (13 December 2019). "The Little Book That Could: How Bernardine Evaristo Became an International Writer-to-Watch in 2019". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  10. Fraine, Laura (17 July 2019), "Shortlist announced for Gordon Burn Prize 2019", NewWritingNorth. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  11. ABC / Reuters (15 October 2019). "Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo win the 2019 Booker Prize". ABC News online.
  12. "Best Books of 2019". The Washington Post. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  13. Wood, Heloise (30 December 2019). "Obama hails Girl, Woman, Other and Normal People as favourite books of 2019 | The Bookseller". The Bookseller. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  14. Gay, Roxane (6 February 2020). "A Year in the Life: 2019". Medium. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  15. Clark, Alex (26 December 2019). "From The Big Short to Normal People: the books that defined the decade". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  16. Sethi, Anita (27 April 2019). "Bernardine Evaristo: 'I want to put presence into absence'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  17. Hart, Michelle (12 November 2019). "These LGBTQ Books Changed the Literary Landscape in 2019". Oprah Magazine. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  18. "The 100 Must-Read Books of 2019". Time. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  19. "Bernardine Evaristo on black British identity and her Booker-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other". CBC Books. 17 January 2020.
  20. "The Best International Fiction of 2019". CBC Books. 12 December 2019.
  21. Nathanson, Hannah (27 November 2019). "13 Of The Best Feminist Books To Gift Your Most Fearless Friends This Christmas". ELLE. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  22. "British Book Awards 2020: Books of the Year shortlists revealed | The Bookseller". The Bookseller. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  23. Hardyment, Christina (26 October 2019). "Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo audiobook review". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  24. "Women in 2019: the game changers". The Financial Times. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  25. "Women's Prize For Fiction 2020". Women's Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  26. "British Book Awards 2020: Books of the Year shortlists revealed | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  27. Girl, Woman, Other | Grove Atlantic.
  28. "OKAYAFRICA - 100 WOMEN". OKAYAFRICA's 100 WOMEN. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  29. "Orwell Prize Longlists for Political Writing and Political Fiction 2020". The Orwell Foundation. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  30. Glenister, Emily (6 April 2020). "Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Longlist 2020". Goldsboro Books. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  31. "Announcing the ABIAs 2020 Longlist". ABIA. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  32. Jupp, Emily (19 February 2020). "Visionary Honours 2020 shortlist announcement – Visionary Arts Organisation". Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  33. "I Long Ago Chose to Take My Community with Me on My Creative Journey | Bernardine Evaristo". Brittle Paper. 4 January 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
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