I am smitten, I’m beholden, I’m terrified I will never write anything this stunning.
This 2019 novel by London based Bernardine Evaristo breaks the mold in numerous ways. Its heroines are women you haven’t seen much in literature, and yet they are people you encounter every day. They teach your children, they are your children, they clean your house, they dance in the nightclub beside you, they transform and defy who society wants them to be, every day.
Innovations in form are flawless here, besides the structure itself: the entire book is written without capital letters or periods framing its sentences.
(You may have heard of “Girl, Woman, Other” from Barack Obama. Apparently it’s one of his recent faves.)