Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

this book has no capital letters at the beginning of paragraphs

it also has no full stops

or speech marks

it's insanely annoying! Punctuation exists for a reason Mrs!!! 

good grief. I started it one evening and could absolutely not follow it at all. However, I persevered the next day and actually got into it. In fact, I really struggled to put it down. I could honestly have read this book forever.

Each chapter is the story of one woman. Which, at first, I thought was going to be really annoying, largely because I adored the first character and wanted to carry on hearing her tale. I thought it was going to be a bunch of short stories, only vaguely linked, which I suppose it is in some ways, but it works really well, mainly I think because you are instantly engaged in each woman's story. She writes so well that there's none of that getting-used-to-the-character settling-in period.

Chapter one - 1) Amma, 2) Yazz, 3) Dominique.

Amma is a strong, black, feminist, lesbian, avante guard playwright. Yazz is her daughter (conceived in a moment of broodiness), a character that has marked the point where I realise I identify more with the middle-aged mother (even if she is super cool) and not the youthful, confident in that 20-year-old-knows-everything way, adult. Very depressing. Dominique is Amma's best friend and partner in business until she meets Nzinga and moves to America.

Chapter two - 1) Carole, 2) Bummi, 3) Latisha

Carole is a 20-something mathematical and financial wizard who grew up in a housing estate in Peckham, determined to succeed, and does so with the help of an amazing supportive teacher. Bummi is Carole's mother. Emigrated from Nigeria with her husband in the 70s. Latisha was Carole's best friend when they were young and has gone down a very different (but, to be clear, that doesn't mean unsuccessful!) path.

Chapter three - 1) Shirley, 2) Winsome, 3) Penelope. 

Shirley was Amma's best friend from childhood. Total opposites but they remain good friends. Winsome is Shirley's mother. Penelope is a fellow teacher in Shirley's school. Polar opposites of Shirley and the only white woman, she feels a little bit of an anomaly to the rest of the book.

Chapter four - 1) Morgan/Megan, 2) Hattie, 3) Grace.

Morgan is born Megan but never fits into the pretty-little-girl bracket that her mother wants her to be. Starts exploring her options and it's all about her learning curve. Hattie is her grandmother, in her 90s, she lives on the farm that she and her husband ran. Grace is Hattie's mother. She was a mixed-race child in the Victorian era.

Chapter five - The After Party. The afterparty of the opening of the play, reconnects and expands and rounds up the stories some of the characters.

Chapter six – Epilogue. This really nicely and satisfyingly wraps up and connects the story of just one of the 9 characters. I won't say whose!

I've tried to not give away anything about the women but it's so hard because I just want to keep them all in my head forever. I want to write it all out because I want to continue living with them all. This is absolutely not to say they're all lovely, nice characters, but they're all interesting and so well written that I just want to know more. There's historical interest, political interest, personal interest. It's a Booker Prize Winner. And so it should be.