This book is really wonderful. It ties together the interwoven stories of 11 women and 1 non-binary person, as well as, very briefly at the end, a very insecure man. Evaristo artfully develops full stories (in most cases, life-long histories) for each character, and intersects them in incredibly interesting ways. It could be read as a short story collection, but somehow comes out as a full novel.

It’s also a very readable book. Evaristo demonstrates the power of her storytelling over dense or overly poetic prose, making it accessible and enjoyable to anyone willing to consider each character and “hear” her/their story.

The stories give a broad spectrum of Black British experiences, across multiple generations starting from the late 1800s through today. I found the book to be a great complement to the non-fiction British history I’ve been reading. Well-written fiction has this amazing way of helping the reader understand history better than any history book ever could. All that said, I think readers from anywhere would find a plethora of ways to

For me, the last chapter and epilogue (both felt like epilogues, actually) were bows tied around gifts that were already so lovely they didn’t need any decoration. I think I might have felt a lack of closure without them, but at the same time, I would have had more opportunity to imagine each character’s legacy. I still enjoyed the end, so this is more of an observation.

I highly recommend GWO. It’s deserving of its place on the Booker Prize short list!

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