Teeming with energy, humour and heart, a love song to black Britain told by twelve very different people. Twelve very different people, mostly black and female, more than a hundred years of change, and one sweeping, vibrant, glorious portrait of contemporary Britain. Bernardine Evaristo presents a gloriously new kind of history for this old country: ever-dynamic, ever-expanding and utterly irresistible.
Grace is a Victorian orphan dreaming of the mysterious African father she will never meet. Winsome is a young Windrush bride, recently arrived from Barbados. Amma is the fierce queen of her 1980s squatters' palace. Morgan, who used to be Megan, is blowing up on social media, the newest activist-influencer on the block.
It was winner of the Booker Prize 2019. Ref: Booktopia
The Author: Bernadine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo is the author of Lara, winner of the Emma Best Book Award in 1999, The Emperor's Babe and Soul Tourists. She is a former Poet in Residence at the Museum of London, and her work has been widely anthologized. She won a prestigious Arts Council Writers Award in 2000. Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, OBE FRSL FRSA. Born 29 May 1959, Woolwich, London, United Kingdom, is a British author and academic. Her eighth book, the novel, Girl, Woman, Other, won 2019 Booker Prize.
Born: Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo
Nationality: British
Education: Eltham Hill Grammar School
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*Give [Evaristo] more prizes! All the prizes! It has the pace of a whistle stop tour and yet it seems no detail of the myriad of lives we encounter is missed. -- Graham Norton via Twitter
*If you haven't discovered [Evaristo] yet, I urge you to read all and any of her books. Devoured one a day already and ordered more. Hilarious, compassionate, moving and brutally honest. -- Richard E Grant via Twitter
*Beautifully interwoven stories of identity, race, womanhood, and the realities of modern Britain. The characters are so vivid, the writing is beautiful and it brims with humanity. -- Nicola Sturgeon via Twitter
*Such a satisfying read, funny and true, the characters are so real you feel you know them already -- Miranda Sawyer via Twitter
*A warm, humorous and ambitious novel, and one that is enjoyably playful in style. It is both a product of its time and unlike any book ever written about Britain * Economist *
*Exuberant, bursting at the seams in delightful ways... Evaristo continues to expand and enhance our literary canon. If you want to understand modern day Britain, this is the writer to read * New Statesman * Ref: Booktopia
Our Review:
Due to the Covid Lockdown in Metropolitan Melbourne last week we were not able to come together for our Book Club meeting and thus not able to discuss the book. So here is my personal review of the book.
I found this book confronting at first. I have very little personal experience with the sexuality issues that many of these women faced throughout their lives. Also it was difficult to relate to their experiences of being black and many of them also being migrants.
Evartisto’s stories presented a wide picture of experiences for this cohort, of present day and past generations of British, black women. I learnt so much about what it is like socially and within their families for British black women and about their varied life experiences within British society.
On reflection, after I finished the book, I realised I had learnt so much. It wasn’t at times an enjoyable read but it was a very worthwhile read. I’m so glad I read this book and I can understand why it has been so widely acclaimed.
I would recommend it as a worthwhile read.
Thanks to Margaret Cassidy for this review
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