Bernardine Evaristo Books in Order (Updated 2026-02-06)

Bernardine Evaristo’s books are best approached by form as much as by date. She moves between poetry, verse fiction, experimental novels, and nonfiction, often blending them.

Nothing here is a numbered series. The only real “order” choice is whether you want to begin with her most accessible recent fiction, or start at the beginning and watch her style evolve.

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If you only want one starting point

• Best first pick for most readers: Girl, Woman, Other (her most widely read novel; many voices, one tapestry)
• Best first pick if you love historical voice and rhythm: The Emperor’s Babe (verse fiction; sharp, fast, alive)
• Best “see her range quickly” plan: The Emperor’s Babe → Blonde Roots → Girl, Woman, Other

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Fiction and verse fiction in publication order

(Each line is an original, spoiler-light guide.)

1. Lara (1997): A semi-autobiographical story-in-verse follows family roots across countries and generations, then returns to London childhood with clear-eyed intimacy.
2. The Emperor’s Babe (2001): A Black teenage girl in Roman London narrates her coming-of-age in verse that mixes attitude, history, and heartbreak.
3. Soul Tourists (2005): A mismatched couple road-trips across Europe and beyond, while ghosts of overlooked history keep stepping into the car.
4. Blonde Roots (2008): An alternate world flips the transatlantic slave trade, using satire to expose what power tries to normalize.
5. Hello Mum (2010, novella): A fourteen-year-old writes to his mother from the inside of gang life, trying to explain the choices that trapped him.
6. Mr Loverman (2013): An older Caribbean man in London hides a lifelong love, and the cost of secrecy finally becomes heavier than the lie.
7. Girl, Woman, Other (2019): Interlinked lives across Britain unfold in a chorus of perspectives, showing how identity is shaped, and reshaped, over time.

Edition note (for completeness): Lara was later released in a revised, expanded edition (2009). If you’re buying today, you’re most likely getting that expanded version.

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Poetry

(Separate from the novels; read anytime.)

• Island of Abraham (1994): A poetry collection that introduces her early voice, bold, formally curious, and alert to history’s pressure on everyday life.

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Nonfiction

(Also separate from the fiction; read anytime.)

• Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (2021): A memoir-in-motions that traces her path through art, race, class, feminism, and persistence without pretending success was simple.
• Feminism (2021): A short, visual-leaning work that reads like an essay with an art lens, focused on how women (and especially women of colour) are seen, framed, or erased.

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A reading order that keeps variety high

If you want a path that changes texture as you go:

1. The Emperor’s Babe (verse, historical, immediate voice)
2. Mr Loverman (warm, funny, devastating realism)
3. Blonde Roots (satire and conceptual ambition)
4. Girl, Woman, Other (multi-voice, panoramic)
5. Manifesto (her own story, in her own terms)
6. Lara (return to origins and form)

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FAQs

Do any of these books need to be read in order?
No. There’s no continuing plotline or shared cast you must track.

What changes most across the bibliography?
The shape of the writing, poetry, verse fiction, experimental structure, then a broader ensemble approach.

What’s the newest fiction?
Girl, Woman, Other is her most recent widely listed work of fiction as of this update, with Manifesto and Feminism as later nonfiction.

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Bottom line

If you want the cleanest entry: start with Girl, Woman, Other.
If you want to meet her at her most formally distinctive: start with The Emperor’s Babe, then follow publication order from there.