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A review by readingthroughinfinity
Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Thanks to Libro FM and the publisher for sending me an arc of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
I read Girl, Woman, Other in 2021 and loved it, so when I saw that Bernardine Evaristo had a memoir coming out, I was keen to pick it up. I was interested to know more about her as a person and this book certainly delivered.
Evaristo chronicles her childhood growing up in London, her life as a writer, her process for writing, and how she became an activist involved in theatre and mentoring young people of colour. She describes how she discovered in her youth that she liked women (cataloguing one particularly toxic, emotionally abusive relationship in startling detail), but later in life felt that she preferred men.
She also describes the racism she's endured over the decades and what it was like to meet Margaret Atwood at the bottom of the stairs to the stage, knowing they had both just won the Booker Prize. Evaristo has had such an interesting life and she narrates it all with a clarity and candor that make this a really engaging read.
Content warnings for discussions of racism and sexism, break ins, emotionally abusive, toxic relationships, domestic abuse.
I read Girl, Woman, Other in 2021 and loved it, so when I saw that Bernardine Evaristo had a memoir coming out, I was keen to pick it up. I was interested to know more about her as a person and this book certainly delivered.
Evaristo chronicles her childhood growing up in London, her life as a writer, her process for writing, and how she became an activist involved in theatre and mentoring young people of colour. She describes how she discovered in her youth that she liked women (cataloguing one particularly toxic, emotionally abusive relationship in startling detail), but later in life felt that she preferred men.
She also describes the racism she's endured over the decades and what it was like to meet Margaret Atwood at the bottom of the stairs to the stage, knowing they had both just won the Booker Prize. Evaristo has had such an interesting life and she narrates it all with a clarity and candor that make this a really engaging read.
Content warnings for discussions of racism and sexism, break ins, emotionally abusive, toxic relationships, domestic abuse.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting