Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

At the end of February, gather round! We're discussing 'Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel' by British author Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.

We'll meet on Zoom Sunday, February 28, at 1:30 pm for a critical, casual conversation. The organizer will email members who RSPV'd the day before the meeting with the Zoom link. We recommend you use AirPods or earbuds with a microphone, or a headset.

Newcomers and guests are welcome!

[Find online]

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/girl-woman-other-a-novel-booker-prize-winner/9780802156983
WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1159062202

[Publisher's Description]
'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, the book 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.

Anglo-Nigerian writer Bernardine Evaristo is the celebrated author of eight books and the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. Her writing is characterized by experimentation, daring, subversion, and challenging the myths of various Afro-diasporic histories and identities, and her books range in genre from poetry to short story to drama to criticism. She lives in London.

[More]

NPR Book Reviews: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/13/777162287/class-culture-and-sexual-identity-take-center-stage-in-girl-woman-other

NY Review of Books: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/books/review-girl-woman-other-bernardine-evaristo.html

Washington Post Books: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/bernardine-evaristos-girl-woman-other-received-half-a-booker-prize-but-it-deserves-all-the-glory/2019/10/28/b22212fa-f97a-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html