Description
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Read this funny, sharp, delicately woven story of two women’s complicated relationship set in post-apartheid South Africa.
Hortensia and Marion are next door neighbours in a charming, bougainvillea-laden Cape Town suburb. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers behind them. Both have recently been widowed. Both are in their eighties. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility pruned with zeal.
But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. Could long-held mutual loathing transform into friendship?
Love thy neighbour? Easier said than done.
'At once historical and contemporary, The Woman Next Door is charged with beauty, precision, nuance, and hope. Yewande Omotoso is a stunning, essential voice - NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names
‘Wit, charm and playful energy... An insightful and fascinating diptych of two women, with the history of colonialism and slavery lurking in the background’ Herald
Trade Review[A] charming novel that brings the South African city [of Cape Town] to life * i *
Wit, charm and playful energy... An insightful and fascinating diptych of two women, with the history of colonialism and slavery lurking in the background -- Nick Major * Herald Scotland *
Cape Town's answer to
Mapp and Lucia, a war of wits and witticisms amid the bougainvillea of an impossibly smug neighborhood. Yewande Omotoso's deft writing and subtle weaving in of difficult history will leave you in love with these two stubborn old women. Delightful -- Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
A finely observed account of female prejudice, redemption and that often elusive commodity - friendship -- Deidre Conroy * Irish Independent *
At once historical and contemporary,
The Woman Next Door is charged with beauty, precision, nuance, and hope. Yewande Omotoso is a stunning, essential voice -- NoViolet Bulawayo
