Girl, Woman, Other

Excluding the Epilogue, Girl, Woman, Other begins and ends with Amma, a Black lesbian theater director. The arc of Amma’s creative career represents the struggle of a female artist of color coming of age in Britain, making her something of a stand-in for Evaristo herself. Notably, Amma’s play serves as a staging area for many of the characters to finally meet in person, underscoring her status as an authorial figure and hinting at the role literature plays in facilitating Human Connectivity and Interdependence.

However, Amma is also a round character in her own right who struggles with various insecurities. With humor and empathy, Evaristo highlights the contradictions of being an artist and contending with the often-conflicting demands of the capitalist marketplace and the art-making process. A proud visionary, Amma eventually receives recognition for her struggles through the acclaimed staging of her play The Last Amazon of Dahomey. This moment of success is bittersweet, however, as Amma, now middle-aged, fears it will mark the pinnacle of her career. Nevertheless, Amma’s commitments to feminism and art inspire those around her, even her daughter, Yazz, though Yazz is loath to admit it.