I wasn’t sure how I was going to get on with a novel written without punctuation but settled into it and by the end came to see that the author’s style served her well here. The first section ‘Amma’ was exhausting to read and it suited this character’s personality - emotional, frenetic, rushing around from one project to another, no time for full stops. The pace varies from character to character. For example, ‘Carole’ is more staccato, single phrases or words, a hot-shot executive on a mission. ‘Winsome’ (great name) on the other hand is calm, measured, longer laid-back sentences. Unique voices for a whole range of different people with different experiences.

Not for the first time this year I’ve enjoyed a book with the central theme of self-determination, this time exploring it within the spectrum of gender, multi-racial family history, working environment. All of this was fascinating and I engaged immediately with each one in turn, then again as they touched other characters’ lives. The women’s stories are connected, some more closely than others, though I often found myself struggling to join the dots. The biggest difficulty for me was the use of they/their instead of he/his and she/her in the ‘Morgan’ section - I had to keep reminding myself not to wonder who the other person was - I’m not sure I’m able for all that.

I’m so pleased this won the big prize and that the publisher saw fit to give me an ARC via NetGalley, many thanks. It has left me with the need to seek out the author’s back catalogue so job done.

Girl, Woman, Other was easily my favourite book of the year. Although it is told through eleven very different women (and one non-binary person), each of their experiences and versions of the world rang extremely true. Bernardine Evaristo has absolutely mastered the small elements that make a person and their life seem real. I’ll be recommending this to everyone.

I’m not sure there are superlatives enough to do this book justice. What a beautiful novel that makes you proud to be a woman and also reminds those of us white women that we still have a long way to go in terms of not ‘othering’ our black sisters.
Sliding effortlessly from country to country, decade to decade, character to character and neatly trailing silken threads of connection behind her Evaristo has written a modern classic. The reader finds herself assessing her female relationships, sisters, mothers, lovers and comparing her experiences to the characters in the book. For me as an adult daughter and also mother to an adult daughter it was often challenging to examine how I influenced my daughter and passed on influences from my own mother.
I’ve never considered myself much of a feminist but this novel challenged that too and I liked how male characters existed as part of the narrative but never owned real estate in the book and only visited the spaces belonging to the female characters. Some positive, some not but not papered over.
My one regret is that we the reader never got to see the play!!!

The lack of full stops in this book made it unreadable for me. I’m sure there is artistic merit however I rely on full stops to help me read. It seems to be a trendy thing at the moment to not use punctuation but it just irritates me.

Girl, Woman, Other is not like anything else I have read this year. Or like anything else really for some time. Actually, in forever.

It is a story about 12 individuals, all women. They are mainly women of colour. Each individual has their own section of the book. They range in ages from 19 to 93. Each section appears distinct from the next on the surface but as you read, you build upon the tangential connections through time and across relationships.

The book contains stories about (though not only including) history, patriarchy, politics, culture, love, sexuality, class, betrayal, motherhood and parenting, shame, abandonment, pasts determining futures, and different perspectives of shared events.

This book really doesn’t have a plot or an overt method in the way a twisty thriller or crime mystery has certain elements that exist and are all brought together for the ta-dah ending. It doesn’t have a starting or end point in my opinion. It just flows seamlessly from one of the 12 character’s realities, to the next. And each voice translated differently to me. This book, it’s a book that just is. There are no capitals to start sentences. There are no quotations to denote speech. It’s different. It is it’s own being.

I wanted to read Girl, Woman Other before 2019 was under my belt and a memory. I wanted to read this in the year it was the joint winner of the Booker Prize, really to say I had done so. ✅

I admit to literary reads being outside my usual area of preference. [This tends more towards my own feelings of literary inadequacy .... ]. And I am challenged in how to best express how fantastically great this book was, without short-selling it.

I would choose this in preference ten times out of ten. Purely about the way this book made me feel and my reaction to it. This book gave my mind pause, my heart pangs and my eyes a tear or two.

Thank you to @netgalley, Bernadine Evaristo, and @penguinUKBooks for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review to be posted to my Instagram page prior to the end of 2019.

I really struggled with this book, and however much I wanted to enjoy it, I found it a bit of a chore to read. I'm sure a lot of people will love it, but I just found it the style and content rather off-putting.

I loved this book. It took me a little while to get into the episodic nature of it, but I particularly loved finding the links between all the characters as the chapters built. It was so clever and moving and brilliant. Well deserved winner of the Booker prize.

"Girl, Woman, Other" tells the stories of 12 people, the majority of whom are women of colour, each chapter consisting of a linked trio. For example, in the first chapter we meet Amma, a radical theatre director whose play "The Last Amazon of Dahomey" is about to open at the National Theatre, her friend Dominique, who becomes trapped in an abusive relationship in a women's commune, and Amma's daughter Yazz, a student exploring her identity and politics, asserting herself against her mother's second-wave feminism.

Each new chapter introduces us to another, seemingly separate, trio, but gradually the connections between the characters becomes apparent and it is satisfying to enter the inner life of a character who has previously been just a glimpse in another's story. "Girl, Woman, Other" is a panaromic novel, covering many periods. I loved its sweep and detail, its warmth and humour, and felt sad when I had to leave the characters after the final chapter and satisfying epilogue. There is a strong political dimension too, as topics such as race, class, and gender are explored through the characters' lived experience.

Sometimes the dialogue didn't quite ring true such as when Yazz is described as excitedly saying 'she was thinking of becoming non-binary as well, how *woke* was that?';but this is a minor quibble about a clever and absorbing novel.

whilst this novel may well be an important chronicle of the black female experience I was underwhelmed. I felt as if almost all of the experiences were tired and worn themes we hear about all the time as the experience of black women and it felt that this was a wasted chance to let us see the many varied lives and stories there must be rather than the same things- although of course I acknowledge these must be the same awful things happening to black women again and again.
I was also dismayed to find the lack of punctuation- I feel sure this is the trigger for Booker nomination at the moment- it certainly didn't seem as lively and innovative story telling as say milkman did last year- again little punctuation. or Lincoln in the bardo the year before- again with the punctuation- why can it not be the story and the wordcraft that wins the day?
This novel is readable and well written but overall I wanted more.

I received a copy of this book via net galley and Penguin books. It is lauded as a novel of togetherness but is in actual fact almost entirely about the black population and heavily laden with LGBT characters. I didn't feel as if it was about me or mine at all and this isn't to do with the ethnicity or social mores . I found it really difficult to read with a lack of connection to the characters and indeed any linkage between the characters was hard to keep in order as the narrator changes constantly. For me it typifies a Booker prize winner that rarely appeals to the majority or mainstream reader but is instead focusing on some racial or cultural differences. Just not for me. It has taken me a long time to get through it and I really wanted to put it down forever more than once

This is a stunning book. A collection of intertwined lives with brilliant characterisation. I loved reading every part of it. The idiosyncratic punctuation made it sound like a friend telling you a gossipy story, and even though there was a large cast of characters they were all very distinct and it was easy to follow. It was interesting to read stories from a black, female perspective. I would recommend to anyone.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

This is an extraordinary piece of writing, exploring the experience of women in the modern age. The women in the story are interlinked, but in a range of complex and, at times, quite unexpected ways. These interconnections are not laboured but left for the reader to find and recognise. Issues of racial and gender identity are explored and set out for us to appreciate and to take as reminders not to make assumptions and not to label others.

Really excellent and enjoyable writing, which makes a challenging topic an easier read. Recommended.

I can see why this won the booker prize. Twelve portraits of twelve very different women. This is an easy read on some levels, but the subject matter can be harrowing at times. Domestic violence and coercive relationships, gang rape of a minor, the constant discrimination and what it means to be a black woman in the UK.  The twelve women are all linked together very loosely all coming together in the after party of a play at the end.    I thought it was interesting to see the domestic violence portrayed with a lesbian couple.  The difference between how people see themselves contrasting with how others see them was very well portrayed.  

The use of punctuation in this book is unconventional.  No capital letters and full stops to demarcate sentences, but lots of paragraphs instead.  It works though, and after the first few pages, I didn't notice it.

A book about women, for women. The characters in the book are each in a different stage of their life journey and discovery of themselves but they all intertwine wonderfully. A strong voice from a powerful author.

This book was beyond wonderful! It made me laugh and cry, and I felt so many different emotions reading it. I loved each of the 12 perspectives and enjoyed learning how each of them were interlinked. The writing style was unique and I found it provided an excellent pacing for the story. Although some of the topics were difficult to read about, it was a really fast-paced and enjoyable book. I wanted to be friends with so many of the characters which rarely happens for me! A well deserved Booker Prize winner and one that will stay with me for a long time.

This is such a great book. All the characters drawn out in such complexity and depth, it was easy to remember who was who. It was 12 little life stories, which could have been novels themselves. I loved the way all the stories connected seamlessly. I bought a copy for a friend before I even finished it, because I liked it so much.

It was the true Booker winner and a great British novel. While the subject manner could be difficult to read, it was easy to glide through it. I cried (many times, especially at the end, such a great ending, perfect even) I laughed, I saw what she was doing and it made it even more meaningful. An enormous commentary on what it’s like to be black and a woman, and every variation of person, really. Thank you Ms Evaristo.

For some reason I was expecting this book to be more challenging in terms of writing style and more formal. The accessibility of the book and the way it captured my attention and imagination were a wonderful and unexpected surprise. This work is insighful and yes challenging but in a way which absorbs you into the lives and stories of all of the characters. The way this is structured with each chapter telling the story of a different character who is connected to all the rest was original and compelling. The stories of love, loss, pain, healing and struggle were unique and unpredictable.
The main thing I came away with from this work is that voice is a powerful thing - to be able to see a character or individual from the perspective of those in their life and then compare that to the individual's story told from their own point of view and in their own voice is such an important lesson for us all. An important reminder that what we see in others merely scratches the surface of their identity, experiences and lives - particularly in relation to those who belong to vulnerable minorities.
A powerful read and one that is informative as well as engaging.

I can see why the booker prize judges chose a joint winner this year, but if I was forced to choose I would choose Girl, Woman, Other over the Testaments. While I loved Margaret Atwood's latest offering, this book a much more satisfying read. The characters and their narratives left me wanting more and left me feeling invigorated.

A worthy winner of this year’s Booker Prize - this is a magnificent book that deserves to win every prize it’s eligible for!

Girl, Woman, Other shines a light on contemporary Britain in a way I’ve rarely seen in other books - other reviews have described it like a choir of different women’s voices, and I think that’s very accurate! It reads like a beautiful prose poem, with a cast of fascinating characters, all of whom have a story of either racism, prejudice, abuse, misogyny or poverty (often all of them) which they fight to overcome. The writing is so visceral and poetic - you are in these characters’ shoes, hearts, heads and beds. And you won’t forget them in a hurry.

I learned a lot reading this book, not just about issues I have been privileged not to experience firsthand but about humanity. This book is a perfect example of how fiction is often the perfect vehicle for the greatest concerns of our time.

My 100th book of the year - and one of my top books of 2019, without a doubt. Highly recommended!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

This is a brilliant piece of writing and a well deserved joint Booker winner. But it is also an excellent piece of storytelling about women's lives - black women's lives. It reads like I'm sat in a pub or a cafe or a living room and listening in as someone unselfconsciously and without front just talks about their day and their life. There are twelve separate but interconnected stories of different women and the whole reads like a novel rather than short stories as the women seek fulfilment, answers and a better life. I learned a lot about black women's experience, about family, about caring for friends, and about emotional honesty but I also learned about writing and about how to tell a story. But this isn't preachy or "learned" - this is great work and great fun and I enjoyed it.

Ms Evaristo introduces us to a diverse range of voices and characters but holds us throughout by the strength of the narrative as we explore the polyphonic structure.

Recommended if you're getting a bit cynical about contemporary novel writing and need reassurance that the form is alive and well. And also if you just want to read a good story about a range of women who have a brilliant way of speaking their minds.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.