
Winner - Girl, Woman, Other
Girl, Woman, Other
Hamish Hamilton
The judges for this award were blown away by Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker- winning novel Girl, Woman, Other: “an incredible piece of publishing… absolutely fascinating”, they said. Of the six books shortlisted here, commercial success was far from guaranteed for Evaristo.
To break the author into a wider audience, Hamish Hamilton started its grassroots campaign early by sending proofs to “prominent figures outside the usual literary influence”, such as MPs and journalists. The publisher doubled down on its efforts after the book jointly won the Booker last summer, pushing the novel to even greater heights.
The cover itself acknowledges the subject of the novel: themes of race, class and migration were highlighted with archival images of black women in Britain alongside bold African patterns. It projects “total self-assurance and swagger”, the judges reckoned.
The book, told in the voices of 12 mostly black British women, aged 19 to 93, who are drawn from varied cultural backgrounds, classes and sexualities, dazzled the judges, who praised the author’s “experimental” and “innovative” writing style.
The Shortlist
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The TestamentsMargaret Atwood (Chatto & Windus)One of the most anticipated publishing events of the year, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments benefited from a 10-month pre-publication campaign, a now-iconic jacket and a joint Booker win to close 2019 as the bestselling hardback of the year.
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Girl, Woman, OtherBernardine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton)In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the Booker Prize with her polyphonic novel. The publicity campaign aimed to break Evaristo’s work to a wider readership, culminating in a “revolutionary moment” (Guardian).
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Cilka's JourneyHeather Morris (Zaffre)With a big consumer marketing push from Bonnier and by tapping into fans of the first book, Cilka’s Journey achieved huge sales. The true story followed Cilka Klein, the girl who saved Lale Sokolov, to a prison camp in Siberia.
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The Giver of StarsJojo Moyes (Michael Joseph)Jojo Moyes’ latest is set in Depression-era America and follows five women who form a travelling library and are passionate about bringing books to everyone, something Moyes has in common with her characters: an edition was donated to every UK library.
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Lies Lies LiesAdele Parks (HQ)The return to two characters from Adele Parks’ 2000 début, 'Playing Away', brought the first paperback number one of her career. This tale of marriage, secrets and addiction tapped into the public mood of mistrust, fake news and broken promises.
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The Secret CommonwealthPhilip Pullman (Penguin Random House Children’s & David Fickling Books)The second volume in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust series returned to his beloved central character, but Lyra Silvertongue is now 20 years old. As the characters have aged, so have the readers, and this novel was positioned for new adult readers too.