Bernardine Evaristo Books in Order

Where to Start with Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo's bibliography is a masterclass in literary experimentation, blending prose, poetry, script-like dialogue, and historical reimagining. Because all of her fiction works are standalones, there is no single mandatory path. Instead, you can choose a starting point based on the literary style and themes that call to you most:

• The Modern Masterpiece Route (Recommended): Start with Girl, Woman, Other (2019). This polyphonic, Booker Prize-winning novel features twelve interconnected characters and showcases Evaristo's signature style of 'fusion fiction'—a flow of prose poetry without traditional capitalization or full stops that is surprisingly easy and delightful to read.
• The Character Study Route: Begin with Mr Loverman (2013). This is her most traditionally structured novel, focusing on Barrington Jedidiah Walker, a 74-year-old closeted Caribbean Londoner. It is a warm, humorous, and deeply emotional exploration of family dynamics and late-in-life self-discovery.
• The Experimental History Route: Start with The Emperor's Babe (2001). Written entirely in verse, it tells the story of Zuleika, a young girl of Sudanese origin living in Roman London (Londinium) in 211 AD. It is a fast-paced, contemporary-feeling historical fiction that highlights the long, multicultural history of Great Britain.
• The Alternate History Route: Pick up Blonde Roots (2008). This provocative satire flips the transatlantic slave trade on its head, placing white Europeans in the position of the enslaved and black Africans as the masters. It is a challenging but brilliant thought experiment.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Reading Evaristo's novels in the order they were published allows you to trace her evolution as a writer, watching her experiment with verse forms before transitioning into prose-poetry hybrids and eventually writing her most celebrated ensemble pieces. Her novel-length works include:

1. Lara (1997 / revised edition 2009): A semi-autobiographical novel-in-verse that traces the ancestry of a mixed-race girl named Lara across 150 years and three continents, including Nigeria, Brazil, Ireland, Germany, and England.
2. The Emperor's Babe (2001): A vibrant, streetwise novel-in-verse about a young Black woman navigating high society, bad marriages, and forbidden love in Roman-era London.
3. Soul Tourists (2005): A road-trip novel that blends prose and poetry. It follows a mismatched couple, Jessie and Stanley, driving across Europe while encountering the ghosts of real, historical Black and mixed-race figures.
4. Blonde Roots (2008): A satirical, inverted speculative fiction examining slavery, empathy, and systemic oppression by swapping historical racial power dynamics.
5. Mr Loverman (2013): A deeply human character study of a gay dandy living in Hackney, London, who must decide whether to come out to his wife of fifty years.
6. Girl, Woman, Other (2019): A multi-perspective masterpiece following twelve characters, mostly Black British women, across generations, identities, and social classes.

Short Stories, Novellas, and Poetry

Beyond her main novels, Evaristo has written shorter fiction and poetry collections that expand on her core themes of diaspora, London life, and class struggles:

• Island of Abraham (1994): Evaristo's literary debut, this poetry collection is filled with lyrical reflections on cultural identity, travelogues from Madagascar, and bicultural heritage.
• Hello Mum (2010): A fast-paced epistolary novella written for the UK's 'Quick Reads' literacy initiative. It consists of letters written by a 14-year-old boy named Jerome to his mother, detailing a tense day on a South London council estate. It is an excellent, compact introduction to her urban storytelling.

Non-Fiction and Memoirs

For readers who want to understand the life, struggles, and creative process behind Evaristo's award-winning career, her non-fiction works are essential reading:

• Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (2021): A powerful memoir and call to action that details her upbringing as one of eight children in a mixed-race household in London, her early theatre days co-founding the Theatre of Black Women, and her forty-year journey in the arts before achieving global recognition.
• Feminism (2021): Published in collaboration with Tate Publishing, this short work explores the intersections of art, gender, and creative expression.

Anthologies and Curated Series

Evaristo has long been a literary activist, editing and contributing to several collections designed to elevate marginalized voices. Key anthologies featuring her work include NW15 (2007), Ten (2010), and Margaret Busby's landmark compilation New Daughters of Africa (2019). Additionally, she curates the Black Britain: Writing Back series for Penguin Books, which aims to rediscover and reissue lost or out-of-print classics of Black British literature, helping readers explore the rich history of the genre.