The Woman Next Door

It made me howl with laughter and it made me cry

Biyi Bandele, author of Burma Boy and director of Half of a Yellow Sun

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

Every now and again, a book comes along which is very special and different to the run of the mill. In my opinion, this is such a book… The book is funny and sad. I loved this book. It made me think and it made me laugh. Women, in particular, will love this book as it identifies some of our idiosyncrasies so well. Maybe it would not be good for men to read it as it would give away too many of our secrets! This book is one to watch out for and I can’t recommend it enough.

Dorothy Flaxman, Nudge

Hilarious

Pool

Neatly crafted and freshly phrased... for its perspective and polish, and its celebration of all things female – including aging, sometimes disgracefully – it deserves attention

Elspeth Lindner, Book Oxygen

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

A lovely insight into the lives of two women from two completely different backgrounds but with very similar stories to tell. It is a story of age, loneliness and facing up to one's mortality. But ultimately it is a story of the development of a beautiful friendship

swirlandthread, Writing.ie

Yewande Omotoso weaves the layers of the main characters' personal narratives throughout the story delicately and deliberately... with an eloquence and degree of humour that sometimes warrants a line to be read two or three times for maximum appreciation

City Press, South Africa

A must-read not only because it is a deftly written and absorbing tale but because it compells self-reflection

Sunday Times, South Africa

A finely observed account of female prejudice, redemption and that often elusive commodity - friendship

Deidre Conroy, Irish Independent

Like the grannies in Cider with Rosie, their loathing for each other keeps them alive and sparky... Funny and touching with a thought-provoking undertow

WI Life

Yewande Omotoso's novel is an impressive achievement that carries echoes of Nadine Gordimer... It takes stock of the past in the present and examines the geographies of intimacies, which produce in miniature larger power dynamics

Julie Hakim Azzam, Times Literary Supplement

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

The UK debut by a prize-winning African writer. Cape Town residents Hortensia and Marion are neighbours in their eighties and sworn enemies until an unforeseen event forces them together

Elle

Although new to the scene, Yewande Omotoso writes with the skill, intelligence, and compassion of an old master. One of the astonishing achievements of The Woman Next Door is her ability to see all sides of a story. Only such keenness of vision could produce this enlightening and eloquent novel that serves as a testament to a truth that we seldom hear: through honest exchange, it is possible for us to free ourselves from the terrible hauntings of history

Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Song of the Shank and Rails Under My Back

Yewande Omotoso's voice is exciting and fresh. The aesthetic and political engagement in her work is explored through a deep compassion for her characters and their social positions and constraints, without compromising on a fierce yet tender interrogation of their inner lives: race, place and the social web of expectation versus the freedom of an inner life, a complexity of self that she works out through beautiful and uplifting language

Chris Abani

A pleasing tale of reconciliation laced with acid humor and a cheery avoidance of sentimentality

Kirkus

Picked by the Times Literary Supplement's as one of the 'Best Books by Women Every Man Should Read

Times Literary Supplement

Hers is a fresh voice as adept at evoking the peace of walking up a kopje as the cruelty of South Africa's past

Publishers Weekly

This book isn't just an arresting and informative insight into one aspect of post-apartheid South Africa and women's relationships, it's very entertaining!

Reading Matters

An intimate, frequently hilarious look at the lives of two extraordinary women in post-apartheid South Africa...Deeply satisfying...The vivid setting and intricate descriptions transport the reader to this very specific time and place, though the crackling dialog and lively, fiercely independent protagonists are universal

Booklist

[A] charming novel that brings the South African city [of Cape Town] to life

i

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

Hilarious

Pool

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

A finely observed account of female prejudice, redemption and that often elusive commodity - friendship

Deidre Conroy, Irish Independent

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