Girl is a 2019 novel by Irish author Edna O'Brien. The book's plot is inspired by the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria, and is narrated by a fictional victim, Maryam.
.jpg) First edition | |
| Author | Edna O'Brien |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
Publication date | 3 September 2019 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9-780-57134116-0 |
Background
editO'Brien first conceived of the novel after reading about a girl kidnapped by Boko Haram in a magazine at a doctor's office.[1] and the plot is inspired by the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Nigeria.[2] She travelled to Nigeria twice to do research, which included interviewing "escaped girls, their mothers and sisters, to trauma specialists, doctors and Unicef". She later said that she had tried to create a "kind of mythic story from all this pain and horror".[3]
O'Brien regarded Girl as a continuation of the focus of her career, "to chart and get inside the mind, soul, heart and emotion of girls in some form of restriction, some form of life that isn't easy, but who find a way to literally plough their way through and come out as winners of sort – maybe not getting prizes – but come through their experiences and live to tell the tale. It is a theme I have lived and often cried with".[4]
O'Brien does not type her books, and as with others wrote Girl on loose paper, periodically dictating pages to a typist.[5]
Plot
editThe narrator, Maryam, a victim of kidnapping, is given as a prize to a Boko Haram soldier Mahmoud, and bears his baby. Her feelings towards him are complex, especially after he tells her that he joined the group to protect his mother. The story describes horrors in great detail, and is tough to read. Maryam escapes with another girl, but upon returning home is punished by her family, but the closing lines give hope.[6][7]
Publication
editGirl was published on 3 September 2019.[8]
In 2020 O'Brien opened the Avignon theatre festival with a reading from the novel, later described by the French ministry as "a moving story about violence against women, one of her lifelong concerns".[9]
Reception
editWriting for The Guardian, Alex Clark praised the novel, saying: "Everything that O'Brien does memorably throughout her novels, she does here."[10] Charles Taylor of the Los Angeles Times wrote "...the book is the product of a writer thinking of misogyny as a global force, and what's more a force able to reach the fanatic heights represented by Boko Haram because the misogyny of everyday life gives that fanaticism something in which to take root... Girl is a superb example what fiction is supposed to be: an act of empathetic imagination".[11]
Francine Prose of The New York Times praised the book, saying "Let's give O’Brien credit for her energy and passion, for reminding us that at every moment girls are being abused and exploited with unconscionable cruelty and malice. Let's honor her for the grit that inspired her, a woman in her 80s, to travel to Nigeria to listen to people's stories". She said that it also led her to reading moved to begin Beneath the Tamarind Tree, a non-fiction account of the release of some of the Chibok kidnapping victims by CNN reporter Isha Sesay.[7]
According to literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly positive reviews.[12]
Girl was shortlisted for the Prix Femina étranger in France in November 2019, and in that year O'Brien won the Prix Femina spécial for her entire body of work.[13][14]
Poet Imtiaz Dharker, judge for the 2019 David Cohen Prize, a lifetime achievement award won by O'Brien, said about Girl: "I thought I had the course of O'Brien's work mapped out before the judging came around, and then, towards the end of the process, another great tome dropped through the letterbox, changing the whole terrain".[4]
O'Brien said in a 2020 interview that she had been disappointed by the novel's poor reception in the US, although it was well-received in France and Germany.[3]
References
edit- ^ O'Brien, Edna (11 October 2019). "Edna O'Brien On 6 Decades Of Writing 'Very Difficult Stories' About Women" (Interview). Interviewed by Kelly, Mary Louise. NPR. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ Rafferty, Terrence (September 2019). "Edna O'Brien's Lonely Girls". The Atlantic. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- ^ a b O'Brien, Edna (13 December 2020). "Edna O'Brien on turning 90: 'I can't pretend that I haven't made mistakes'". the Guardian (Interview). Interviewed by Hughes, Sarah. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ a b Cain, Sian (26 November 2019). "Irish novelist Edna O'Brien wins lifetime achievement award". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ Parker, Ian (7 October 2019). "Edna O'Brien Is Still Writing About Women on the Run". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
- ^ Cummins, Anthony (16 September 2019). "Girl by Edna O'Brien review – painful, bold and challenging". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ a b Prose, Francine (15 October 2019). "She Escaped From Boko Haram, but Her Troubles Only Continued". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ O'Brien, E. (3 September 2019). Girl. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-34119-1. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ Flood, Alison (3 March 2021). "Edna O'Brien to receive France's highest honour for the arts". the Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ Clark, Alex (6 September 2019). "Girl by Edna O'Brien review – a masterclass of storytelling". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- ^ "In Defiance of Staying in One's Lane: On Edna O'Brien's "Girl"". Los Angeles Review of Books. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
- ^ "Girl". Book Marks. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- ^ "Edna O'Brien wins the Prix Femina Special". Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) Literary Agents. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ Contreras, Isabel (5 November 2019). "Le Femina 2019 pour Sylvain Prudhomme, Manuel Vilas, Edna O'Brien et Emmanuelle Lambert". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 29 July 2024.