Girl, Woman, Other Themes

Girl, Woman, Other features 12 women’s voices from the African diaspora. The women trace their ancestry back to different countries—Ghana, Nigeria, Barbados, Malawi, Ethiopia—and span the first, second, and successive generations of immigrants. The first generation of immigrants, directly tied to their homeland, bring their home cultures with them to the U.K. and fight to maintain them as they struggle to survive in a society that is openly hostile and discriminatory. For Amma’s father Kwabena…

Love and sexuality run through the heart of the 12 narratives that make up Girl, Woman, Other, and each of the women’s stories explores the myriad ways that love intersects with racial and ethnic identity. The pressure to fall in love with someone from one’s own racial or ethnic group is present in many of the women’s lives. Carole’s mother, Bummi, is devastated when her daughter falls in love with a white, English…

Girl, Woman, Other is a deeply complex novel with both direct and subtle connections at every turn. The characters are related in intricate ways that are often unknown to the characters themselves and to readers, who only gradually discover the extent of these connections as the novel unfolds. In this way, the structure of Evaristo’s novel underlies one of its central messages about the intersectional nature of human lives and social movements. Each character is…

All of the characters featured in Girl, Woman, Other are committed to making social change, but each varies in their approach. Broadly, the characters fall into two opposing attitudes. On the one hand are those who want to work within systems, believing that reforming the societal structures that already exist is the clearest path toward progress. On the other hand are the radicals who believe that dismantling society’s broken systems and creating something new in…