The Woman Next Door

Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbours. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers. Both have recently been widowed. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility which they prune with a zeal that belies the fact that they are both over eighty.

"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

But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. And gradually the bickering and sniping softened into lively debate, and from there into memories shared. But could these sparks of connection ever transform into friendship? Or is it too late to expect these two to change?

"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