Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of each of 12 principal characters as they navigate the world. The book is divided into four chapters, each containing episodes about three people who are connected directly to one another in some way, the majority as relatives (such as mother and daughter). Although each character has their own chapter set across a particular time, their lives intertwine in numerous ways – from friends and relatives to chance acquaintances.
The book opens with a playwright, Amma, anticipating the opening of her new production, The Last Amazon of Dahomey, at a theatre in London. The play is based around the fictional life of a Dahomey Amazon. The last chapter of the book takes place at the party that follows the play’s opening night, in which many of the characters are present and interact, though not necessarily knowing one another. The epilogue contains a plot twist after which the story concludes:
this is not about feeling something or about speaking words
this is about being
together
Among the themes explored in the characters’ lives are racism, feminism, politics, patriarchy, success, relationships, gender, and sexuality. Asked about her motivation for writing the work, Evaristo said:
I wanted to put presence into absence. I was very frustrated that black British women weren’t visible in literature. I whittled it down to 12 characters – I wanted them to span from a teenager to someone in their 90s, and see their trajectory from birth, though not linear. There are many ways in which otherness can be interpreted in the novel – the women are othered in so many ways and sometimes by each other. I wanted it to be identified as a novel about women as well.
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