This was so not for me. I hated it from the first few sentences, if they can be called that. Stopped reading it and won't pick it up again. What is wrong with wanting punctuation??!!

I enjoyed this book but it took me a while to work out what was going on. A little confusing at times but otherwise I liked it.

I must admit this book was a disappointment. I normally love Man Booker shortlisted novels, but this became a slog. Independent (though loosely linked) chapters detail a specific woman - mostly black, mostly non-binary/LGBQT. Each chapter in isolation is well written and interesting. The problem is that with a dozen or so of them, without a running narrative or theme, it's hard to feel emotion for the women and you end up not particularly caring about them. The book feels like poetry, chapters can be read in any order, but the sum didn't feel as great as its parts.

Still, I did enjoy the writing, I felt the plot was missing - 4 stars.

Ashamedly I hadn't heard of this author or book prior to the Booker prize but having been supplied by NetGalley with the opportunity to read it I was quickly drawn in, reading late into the night. The unconventional sentence punctuation gave a feel of being in conversation with each of the characters whose stories although seemingly discrete were intertwined by the degrees of separation Karinthy defined. Whilst the book's context starts and ends with a play at the National, the character stories span generations of life experiences of black women and their struggles en route to what we would like to perceive as a multi-racial society where gender and sexuality can be fluid.

Wow, what a novel. The individual, yet intertwining, stories of different women through the years was breathtakingly beautiful. It is a very deserved prize winner.

Very interesting book about the lives of 12 black women, each telling their story about their lives. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley for an Arc.

It takes some time to get used to how the book looks on the page, with a poetic style of writing that evokes emotion more easily than traditional prose. The women all have distinct voices and the dialogue is perfect.

I hadn't heard of this until the Man Booker and when it won I knew that I wanted to read it so I snapped it up straight away when it appeared on NetGalley. The collection of interwoven tales are so strong and emotive and I found this book absolutely engrossing. I'm so glad that it got the acclaim that it deserved, even if the limelight was taken from it more that it should have been. I definitely recommend picking this book up!

Incredible! So deserving of all its critical acclaim. Evaristo is a masterful writer and this story is profoundly impactful and totally original - loved it!

When the Man Booker Prize Winner(s) for 2019 was released, I think we were all simultaneously the most surprised and least surprised we could be, right? I had been trying to read some of the ‘longlist’ titles, and in part had enjoyed some of them, but hadn’t got round to reading the joint winner. Bernadine Evaristo was (wrongly) relatively unheard of in the wider reading world, and her book was disgustingly under pushed in the shops (a rant about this could fill a whole blog post in itself) so I set about reading this book, and was completely blown away.

Girl, Woman, Other is less a single novel and more a collection of interlinked short stories that coalesce to create a rich and diverse tapestry that spans gender, race, culture, and time. Evaristo has constructed a series of narrative that feel wholly authentic no matter the perspective of the character, and has an ability to deconstruct any blockade to understanding the mind and story of someone who has a different background from both each character and each reader.

The stories that were told through the novel were all stories from the perspective of those who are considered to be a minority in the British community as the time their stories are told. I found it really fascinating, and at points both heart warming and heart breaking, to read such complex narratives. Reading from their points of view, how their lives exist and evolve in the face of discrimination or in built lack of privilege was really eye opening and really made me think about society around me as well as in the story. The way the stories, which at first seemed completely unrelated, interweaved by the end to show how even lives that seem separate can influence each other and can cross over when we don’t know or aren’t expecting it.

The narrative style was really unique, from the physical appearance of the words on the page, to the feeling created for each perspective. Evaristo managed to create a separate and unique narrative voice for each story and character that was both unique and crafted to their short tale, but also made each character stand out to the reader. She has a wonderful way of expressing the character’s thoughts and feelings in a really genuine and warm way.

The book was more than deserving of the praise it received. It was one of my favourite reads of the last couple of years, and was a really extraordinary piece of fiction that really focused on the ordinary and elevated it to another level. I really think this was deserving of the Man Booker in it’s own right, and to be hailed and celebrated of it’s own accord, and I really cannot recommend it highly enough.

For once a book that lived up to the hype. I can't add anything much to all the well-earned praise that has already been bestowed on this remarkable book. It is a forceful feminist portrayal of a group of black women and their interconnected lives over a number of years in a patriarchal Britain, their struggles, their loves and their politics. It is quite simply a literary tour-de-force.

As this book won the Booker Prize, I felt I had to read it. I struggled through the first chapter relating to Amma, I couldn't endear myself to her and that had nothing to do with the LGBT lifestyle or ethnicity. I persevered though and as the other associated characters came to life through the literal excellence, I started to really enjoy it. Sadly this went again towards the end and I found the last chapter, as we returned to Amma and her well documented play, really dragging. As someone else said it is very much a Marmite thing and I am sure I will be completely outnumbered in my views.

There are those books you cannot help but devour. You race through the pages as the plot pulls you in with questions to be uncovered.

Meanwhile, there are others that you wish would never end. You take them in page by page, word by word, absorbing its every breath.

Girl, Woman, Other is one of such books, and the pinnacle at that.

This is a novel of incredible scope that discloses the lives and struggles of twelve distinctive characters. Mostly women, black and they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers while presenting a sweeping history of the black British experience. Their diverse circumstances and diaspora unveil themes of motherhood, sexuality, feminism, otherness, gender, and abuse, just to name a few, and are all eloquently tackled with such compassion.

On the one hand, it bewilders me how The Testaments was deemed to be of the same standard of this polyvocal, multidimensional masterpiece. On the other, the backlash of the joint-Booker-Prize win only compelled me to want to get a hold of this book more, and for that I am grateful.

Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo
What immediately struck me was the lack of punctuation; an approach dissimilar to anything I have ever read before. This style is what Evaristo terms as “fusion fiction” – a hybrid ‘disruptive’ style that pushes prose towards free verse, allowing direct and indirect speech to bleed into each other and sentences to run on without full stops. Despite my initial apprehension, after just a couple of pages, I seamlessly slipped into the heads of her unique characters. The book’s fluidity enabled Evaristo to inhabit her character snapshots, across separate timelines and stories, with so much life, nuance and intersectionality. What’s more, upon slowly reading, I perceived the lack of full stops to be indicative of the work that still needs to be done in society. It may be 2020 but the conversations Evaristo encourages us to engage with are still vital.

Moreover, the 12 ‘stories’, or character studies as I suppose more aptly describes them, are grouped into four trios in which the protagonists of each share closer connections to one another, while they are also connected to the others in the most subtle of ways. Evaristo writes from the perspective of an immigrant making her way in an antiquated England, to effortlessly switching to the perspective of their second-generation grandchild figuring out their sexuality. I don’t think I could choose a single favourite, even when some of the characters are flawed or harbour out-dated views.

Although I belong to a privileged group, Evaristo writes with such skill that she brought me closer to something new, something that I can never fully comprehend, but something I consider learning about imperative. Educating ourselves on the history of the black British experience, and many other universal injustices, is essential to build a future free from such crippling inequalities. Literature acts as a window to the world, enabling us to learn from and empathise with people from a scope of backgrounds and Bernardine Evaristo has provided us with a snapshot of Britain in a way I have never read before. This is book is the paradigm of why I love reading with a passion.

Girl, Woman, Other is complex, intertwining, and simply, stunning. This may well be my favourite book of 2020.

The first book of the year chosen by my book group friends was Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other and what a cracking book, ripe for discussion, it was. Stuffed full of vibrant, witty, brave, poignant characters, it sings with the song of British women’s voices over the past hundred years. It’s not a conventional novel, in that there is no linear structure; rather we are introduced to twelve protagonists, each bound in groups of three. I confess I began Girl, Woman, Other on Kindle but found that a bit frustrating as I wanted to flip back to keep track of who was who. However, once I bought the hardback, I flew through the pages and couldn’t wait to hear the thoughts of my book group buddies. An excellent BG choice.

Amma is a trained actor, now theatre director, who spent her youth ‘heckling shows that offended her political sensibilities’ She is the main linking character in this book which is not a novel but more a series of interlinking stories about women – mostly women of colour – whose lives weave and wend around each other.

I loved this book because it brought me further understanding of life experiences outside of my own white middle class world. And also because it took me back into a very familiar world of lesbian feminist politics in London in the 1980’s and beyond. Sisterwrite bookshop, Spare Rib magazine, The Bell pub – all part of my own history but seen through different eyes from my own.

What I found difficult was the constant shifting from one story to the next. Twelve women – all linked in some way even if only by association – which means twelve times just as I got involved with one story, I had to wake up and restart with another. I also had difficulty with the style of no full stops only paragraph spaces to break the flow of thought, but I got used to it and by the last part of the book I hardly noticed it, perhaps it is more like poetry in which case I do see that it works but still, sometimes I got lost.
I was very involved with each character and enjoyed the variety of lives that are described. Yes having so many, and all quite central in their own way, meant that you can’t do deep as well as wide but, my imagination can do the rest. I haven’t read many novels that cover this period in history especially the sort of discussions that we were all having.

Women’s friendships are celebrated here and woman to woman relationships inside and outside the family. Describing the abusive relationship between Nzinga and Dominique was also a brave story to include. But both women given their space and described with compassion. Women are not only kind and caring and soft they can be damaged and damaging.

“it struck Amma that this woman could be a formidable opponent, the energy that had hitherto radiated warmth had quickly turned radioactive”

I can’t remember all the links between characters which is perhaps one of the weaknesses of this book – I’d need to read it twice to get things straight – but I loved the story of Grace who had lost her mother so young and survived many abandonments yet ended up living with Joseph who loved her. She went from being a housemaid to a housewife and “she didn’t like being inside the gloomy interior of her new home that smelled of old things that should have been thrown out a long time ago”. I like this writing.

All in all I found this a very loving book and well worth reading.

This book, without a doubt, should have won the Booker Prize without having to share the honour with Margaret Atwood (as brilliant a Atwood is). The structure and impact of the narrative is brilliant, with the stories of the very different women intertwining and touching one another so that the connections between characters and past and present are slowly revealed. It covers so many things that both connect and divide its characters, race, class, generation. It's also a feminist masterclass in that it acknowledges a broad spectrum of womanhood and delves deep into the analogues and stereotypes that stand for women in literature, life and the media. Every character has a fully-fledged voice, totally distinct and instantly recognisable as they confront different obstacles and negotiate relationships. That Evaristo can achieve this, not just for 12 individual characters but for the peripheral characters in each narrative, show what a versatile and complex writer she is.

Although the narrative style took me a short while to get into, I was soon gripped and, ultimately, absolutely loved Girl, Woman, Other. Each chapter, focusing on linked characters, is a wonderful glimpse into people's lives; I was always left feeling satisfied that their story had been well told while also wanting to hear more about them. A very well deserved Booker winner, and essential reading for anyone interested in UK black history, feminism and gender.

Girl, Woman, Other is a collection of stories about the lives of diverse women. The stories cover different periods of time. Each woman narrates her own story and as some of the stories interlink we get to see multiple sides to an event or period of time.
Worthy winner of the Booker Prize, a book that captures the past, present & the future.

Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic account of the lives of 12 fictional characters in contemporary and XXth century UK. The brilliant prose of Evaristo reveals what was like and it is like to be a black woman in the UK, touching most of the themes of intersectional feminism such as gender, race and social class. The 12 characters come from different backgrounds, yet they’re linked together through family, friendship or work; they are also all extremely realistic and believable. I really love this book, and Evaristo is great at delivering the characters’ emotions: one cannot help but sympathize and feel their joy or pain, according to what happens in their story. Even if it’s set (mostly) in the UK, Girl, Woman, Other is a great read for everyone, and I'd strongly recommend to add it to your personal bookshelf, you'll love this book!

Thanks to Penguins Book (UK) and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this fantastic novel.

A fantastically rich novel. Evaristo is a master storyteller, weaving hundreds of years worth of history into one wholly satisfying narrative that both captures the past and present so vividly.