A review by flying_monkey
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Bernadine Evaristo won the 2019 Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other, the 2019 Booker Prize winner, jointly with Margaret Atwood, which was ridiculous not least because Atwood hasn't written anything as good as this for some time. The novel consists of a series of life stories of black British women, immigrants and second and third generations, writers and shop assistants, actors and bus drivers, all of whom are in some way connected to the first character we're introduced to, Amma, a dramatist whose new play is about to enjoy its premiere at the National Theatre in London. I don't think I can praise this novel too highly. The characters live and breathe, the settings are alive whether they are in Britain or the USA or the Caribbean (and certainly the descriptions of life in a radical squat in London brough back some unpleasant memories!), and the politics are pointed and should embarass anyone who thinks that things are basically alright, aren't they? But above all, I admired this book's prose style. It's written in poetic run-on sentences and in particularly I loved the way that Evaristo will sometimes break the rhythm 
 
 to write in a list
 to make a point
 to create an effect
 to... (you get it).
 

I do have to say something about the ending too. Too often literary novelists dismiss the genuinely happy ending as trite, but this novel has a beautiful, unexpected happy ending that you really cannot see coming, involving the characters you would least expect. It made me cry, and made me love this book even more.

Read this book.