I’ve been a huge fan of Margaret Atwood’s work for a long time. So when I saw that --- in a ground-breaking decision --- her latest novel, THE TESTAMENTS, shared this year’s Man Booker Prize with Bernardine Evaristo’s GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER (which at the time was not even available in the United States yet), I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to pick it up. After having the opportunity to read it, I’m pleased to report that not only does it offer a fierce feminist perspective to rival Atwood’s own, it also is written in a bold, lyrical style that will both challenge and surprise readers, myself included. I can’t wait to read more by this writer.

The framing story of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER centers on the opening night of a play written by one of the novel’s central characters, Amma, whose life story is the first one explored in the narrative. Amma is a mother, a creative, a charismatic figure in London’s lesbian scene, and her story is just the first of 12 profiles of a diverse, fascinating group of women whose lives comprise this book.

"...simultaneously delightfully character-driven, powerfully observant and deeply empathetic in its portrayal of the lives of women of color and the century of circumstances that have shaped and been shaped by them."

These characters include Amma’s college-age daughter, Yazz, who’s intent on proclaiming her wokeness, as well as Amma’s long-time creative partner, Dominique, whose narrative focuses on her emotional abuse at the hands of another woman. As the novel progresses (its 12 profiles are grouped into sets of three more closely linked characters), the connections spiral further outward, but all come back --- directly or tangentially --- to that opening night play. The characters are diverse in age, country of origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and class. They fall in and out of love, endure painful relationships and establish healthy ones, give birth and suffer loss, and establish and redefine connections --- with one another and with the other men, women and children in their lives.

Younger readers, in particular, may be surprised to discover the extent to which --- as Evaristo brilliantly illustrates --- the concerns and joys of today’s younger generation have always been part of the fabric of women’s lives already. As GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER suggests, however, the great gift of the past 20 years or so is the opportunity for their stories --- and countless more both like and unlike them --- to come out into the open and be recognized. “We should celebrate that many more women are reconfiguring feminism and that grassroots activism is spreading like wildfire and millions of women are waking up to the possibility of taking ownership of our world as fully-entitled human beings,” one character proclaims near the novel’s end.

Throughout, Evaristo’s prose is written almost like poetry, in short sections that inventively utilize surprising line breaks and unorthodox capitalization and punctuation to generate a breathless reading experience that ranges from painfully raw to joyfully profound. GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER is simultaneously delightfully character-driven, powerfully observant and deeply empathetic in its portrayal of the lives of women of color and the century of circumstances that have shaped and been shaped by them.