Booker Prize Winner Evaristo hopes to build ties with African and British readers

Record ID: 1438757

  • Title: Booker Prize Winner Evaristo hopes to build ties with African and British readers
  • Date: 27th October 2019
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (OCTOBER 26, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOOKER PRIZE WINNER HOLDING HER BOOK SAYING (English): "Hi, My name is Bernardine Evaristo and this is my new book 'Girl, Woman, Other' which won the Booker Prize 2019 with Margaret Atwood." VARIOUS OF BERNARDINE EVARISTO COMING ON STAGE AT HER BOOK READING AT THE AKE ARTS AND BOOK FESTIVAL / PEOPLE CHEERING BANNER READING (English) "AKE ARTS AND BOOK FESTIVAL" VARIOUS OF EVARISTO DURING PANEL DISCUSSION VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LISTENING EVARISTO READING AN EXCERPT OF THE AWARD-WINNING BOOK VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LISTENING AS EVARISTO READS AN EXCERPT OF BOOK/ PAGES OF BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOOKER PRIZE WINNER, BERNARDINE EVARISTO, SAYING: "We need to see ourselves reflected in the society we're living in. We need to see ourselves in literature. You know, literature is the best ways I think of exploring human behaviour, human psychology, human experience, and if we don't see the specificity of our experiences as women who are black and British, then I think there's an absence and there's something lacking in us." EVARISTO'S BOOK COVER READING (English) "Girl, Woman, Other" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STANDING AND CHATTING VARIOUS OF EVARISTO SIGNING BOOKS AND CHATTING TO FANS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOOKER PRIZE WINNER, BERNARDINE EVARISTO, SAYING: "For people on the continent who, they do not necessarily have access to British society, I would think that a book like 'Girl, Woman, Other' will give them insights into a multiplicity of experiences that we have in the UK from a Nigerian immigrant, you know, going to the UK thirty years ago, to the experience of growing up in Britain, to older people having, you know, like Hattie who is a farmer in the north of England, having been born in Britain and far before Windrush (scandal) was even conceived. So, I think it will be informative, hopefully." PEOPLE LOOKING AT BOOKS ON BOOKSHELVES WOMAN WITH PAINTED FACE LOOKING AT BOOKS VARIOUS OF WOMAN TAKING A COPY OF "GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER" OFF THE SHELF AND READING IT (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOOKER PRIZE WINNER, BERNARDINE EVARISTO, SAYING: "All kinds of people are reading it, White guys as well, and telling me that they get a lot from it, and even that they relate to it. So you know, I think literature that works speaks to our humanity and hopefully, that's what this book is doing. So hopefully, it is helping people understand and create empathy about people that are not necessarily coming into contact with or having an understanding of."
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2019 11:20
  • Keywords: Booker Prize Winner African Woman Britian
  • Location: LAGOS, NIGERIA
  • City: LAGOS, NIGERIA
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Books,Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001B2VHHZB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Author Bernardine Evaristo hopes her Booker Prize-winning novel will help to alter perceptions of black British people among African readers and Britons she sees as grappling with heightened racial tension.
    In an interview with Reuters on Saturday (October 26) at the Ake literary festival in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, she also said she was in talks over the rights for film and theatre adaptations of "Girl, Woman, Other".
    The 60-year-old author, who described winning the Booker Prize for her eighth work of fiction as "life-changing", split the 50,000 pounds ($62,800) annual prize with Margaret Atwood, author of "The Testaments", in a surprise double award earlier this month by the judging panel.
    Of Nigerian and British parentage, Evaristo was the first black woman to win the prize, which honours "the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland".
    The book tells the stories of 12 characters living in Britain who are mainly female and black, aged between 19 and 93, and with a variety of sexual orientations.
    "For people on the continent who don't necessarily have access to British society I would think a book like 'Girl, Woman, Other' would give them insights into the multiplicity of experiences that we have in the UK," said Evaristo.
    The author, who lives in Britain and whose father was raised in Lagos and left Nigeria for Britain in 1949, said she participated in the annual Ake festival because it was important to "bridge the gap" between people in Africa and its diaspora.
    The author - on her fourth visit to Nigeria - said she hoped her work would do the same in Britain, where she said she felt the debate surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union had led to an increase in "street level bigotry".
    "Literature speaks to our humanity and hopefully that's what this book is doing, so hopefully it is helping people understand and create empathy about people they aren't necessarily coming into contact with," she said.
    Aside from the political backdrop, Evaristo said she felt it was important for the book to be recognised because of the shortage of published literature either by, or about, black women in Britain.
    "We need to see ourselves reflected in the society we're living in. The fact that I have to draw attention to the fact that we are pretty absent from literature is a real problem because I think a lot of people don't notice that," she said.
    The stories of the 12 characters featured in the book may yet reach an even broader audience.
    Evaristo said discussions were "pretty far along" regarding film and theatre rights, both of which began when the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
    Talks over the film rights were with a UK production house, said the author, though "Netflix hasn't come calling yet".
    While the prize has been jointly awarded twice previously, the rules changed in 1993 limiting the award to one author. The judges defied those rules this year, saying they could not agree on a winner between the books by Evaristo and Atwood.
    "I'm just happy to get the Booker Prize. I'm happy to share it with Margaret Atwood. It's all good," Evaristo told the audience during a panel discussion at the Ake festival, with a smile.
    (Production: Seun Sanni, Nneka Chile)
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