The Woman Next Door

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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.But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together And gradually the bickering and sniping softens 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 Read The Woman Next Door author Yewande Omotoso – kino-fada.fr Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.In South Africa s Cape Town suburb of Constancia, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbors Both women had successful careers in their youth, are recently widowed, and they attend the neighborhood committee meetings where they delight in needling one another Fueled by longstanding racism and unmet desires, they both long for something the other has and are subsequently bitter rivals When unexpecte Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.In South Africa s Cape Town suburb of Constancia, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbors Both women had successful careers in their youth, are recently widowed, and they attend the neighborhood committee meetings where they delight in needling one another Fueled by longstanding racism and unmet desires, they both long for something the other has and are subsequently bitter rivals When unexpected events force Hortensia and Marion together, a spark of friendship threatens to dissolve their bitterness Their rivalry was famous enough for the other committee women to hang back and watch the show It was known that the two women shared hedge and hatred and they pruned both with a vim that belied their ages. The Wo...I received a copy of The Woman Next Door from its publishers, Chatto and Windus, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review Hortensia James and Marion Agostino have been rivals for decades, though they ve lived on the other side of a hedge from each other for all those years In post apartheid South Africa, one is black and one is white what they have in common is their spunkiness in old age, that they ve both been recently widowed and that they both feel a certain superiority from the su I received a copy of The Woman Next Door from its publishers, Chatto and Windus, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review Hortensia James and Marion Agostino have been rivals for decades, though they ve lived on the other side of a hedge from each other for all those years ...Technically it s a 2.5 from me I liked it enough but didn t want to rush back to it when I put it down which is such a shame as I thought I d love it Two neighbouring women, one white and one black, hate each other and spy on each other over the dividing walls of their gardens, that is u...Hortensia James, 85, small with a bad leg, bitter and angry, waits for her husband to die, releasing her from sixty years in a wrecked marriage She lives in Katyerijn, a housing colony in Cape Town Constantia in post apartheid South Africa She is the only black owner in the colony Her next door neighbor is Marion Agostino, a recent widow facing financial ruin and her racism She s also an architect who designed the home Hortensia lives in, one she always coveted for herself, but could never p Hortensia James, 85, small with a bad leg, bitter and angry, waits for her husband to die, releasing her from sixty years in a wrecked marriage She lives in Katyerijn, a housing colony in Cape Town Constantia in post apartheid South Africa She is the only black owner in the colony Her next door neighbor is Marion Agostino, a recent widow facing financial ruin and her racism She s also an architect who designed the home Hortensia lives in, one she always coveted for herself, but could never purchase whenever it came up for sale And now, Hortensia has decided to make some changes to that award winning floor plan which was Marion s first project and the jewel in her career crown What follows is the deconstruction and reconstruction of not just a house, but of a relationship between these two women who, though very different on the outside, may havein common than they know I read thi...Two well educated old ladies living next door to each other one white and one black in the 1950 s Both women had lost their husbands There was no love lost between these two women, they bickered about everything Only the hedge between their properties kept them apart, when all of the sudden, due to an unfortunate accident, the two women are thrown together living together Does this mellow their animosity or further incite it I tended to love some of the characters in this story and di Two well educated old ladies... Also available on the WondrousBooks blog. Country BarbadosThe Woman Next Door is a story about the years long feud between two neighbours, Marion and Hortensia, living in post apartheid South Africa While Hortensia is a woman of color, grumpy and angry at life, Marion is a racist, white snob Both are successful in their careers, both are strong willed and don t like backing down The sum of all of these characteristic creates a bitter relatio...7 10 Last Year s Novels Contemporary Lit ModuleThis is one of those literary fiction novels where the main characters are female And it s about the subtleties of how women relate to each other Especially from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds Marion and Hortensia are both strong women They ve had successful businesses Have opinions and not afraid to state them or stand up for them Both are strong willed and sometimes stubborn Hortensia especially so They ve been living next door to each other in a suburb of Cape Tow This is one of those literary fiction novels where the main characters are female And it s about the subtleties of how women relate to each other Especially from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds Mar...I was really excited about this book I would have preferred some of the backdrop as to Hortensia s character been revealed much earlier By the time the author revealed the root of her bitterness the character was so cold and unsympathetic the reveal didn t make her anyof character I should invest in To the author s credit I enjoyed placing two female elders at the center of the story While I was reading I pondered how the lives of successful women can be shaped by others and their ac I was really excited about this book I would have preferred some of the backdrop as to Hortensia s charac...Bailey s Women s Prize for Women s Fiction 5 16First of all The Woman Next Door is a good book I did not mind the writing and the characters were ok There are flaws though and these occur throughout the whole novel.The plot deals with Hortensia and Marion, two widows who live next door to each other a...

The Woman Next Door
  • English
  • 07 May 2017
  • Kindle Edition
  • 290 pages
  • Yewande Omotoso
  • The Woman Next Door