Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is a novel divided into five chapters, and each chapter has three subchapters that compose character vignettes of disparate people. In the first chapter, we meet Amma, a theater director about to debut her latest play, The Last Amazon of Dahomey. On her way to the theater, she reflects on her past struggles. Being a Black woman when she was growing up meant that no theater institutions wanted to hire her. However, now she is the Director of the London National Theatre. She also has a daughter, Yazz, whose story makes up the second character vignette of the novel. Yazz is in university, and her subchapter details the experiences of a 19-year-old, vibrant, and strong-minded student. The third vignette describes Dominique, Amma's best friend, who starts a relationship with a radical (and ultimately abusive) older woman, survives, and eventually migrates to the USA where she establishes a successful women's art festival.
The second chapter focuses on a different group of characters: Carole, Bummi, and LaTisha. Carole is a young black woman who overcomes sexual assault to become a successful professional in the banking industry. Bummi is Carole's single mother, widowed after the death of Carole's father. She overcomes significant hardships to start her own cleaning company. LaTisha is Carole's friend, who has three children with three different men, all of whom abandon her. She works at a grocery store, and is determined to make a better life for herself and her children.
The third chapter details the lives of Shirley, Winsome, and Penelope. Shirley is Amma's childhood friend, and also a jaded teacher at a low-income school whose only comfort is mentoring "promising" students. Carole was one such student. Shirley marries a seemingly perfect man named Lennox. Unbeknownst to her, however, Lennox has an affair with Shirley’s mother, Winsome. While Winsome overcame significant hardships to provide a better life for herself and her children, she is ultimately an unkind mother to Shirley. Penelope is Shirley's older colleague at the school. Though the two have a rocky relationship at first, they eventually bond over their shared jadedness. Penelope's personal life is tumultuous and leaves her feeling lonely and unhappy.
The fourth chapter introduces Megan/Morgan, their great-grandmother, Hattie, and their great-great-grandmother, Grace. Born female, Morgan ultimately becomes a genderfree person. Morgan's character vignette details their struggles with identity, bullying, and drugs. They ultimately overcome these difficulties and find a niche for themselves in social media activism. Hattie is brought up on Greenfields, the family farm that she inherits. Her vignette details her teenage pregnancy, her marriage to an African-American man named Slim, and the family that she brings into the world. Grace, Hattie's mother, marries into the Rydendale family—the owners of Greenfields. Grace overcomes significant hardships in both childhood and marriage, but triumphs over these struggles by remaining a loving mother and wife.
The after-party for Amma's play is detailed in the fifth chapter. This chapter ties together the stories of a majority of the characters detailed in previous chapters.
In a final twist, the novel concludes with Penelope reuniting with her biological mom, Hattie.
