Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This book, which co-won the Booker Prize for the first time.  Now having read both of the winners, this is the best, hands down.  They were throwing Margaret Atwood a Lifetime Achievement Award.  The story begins just hours before the debut of a play at the National Theater in London, and it ends as the audience spills into the lobby. During that brief window of time, a whole world is  Spun out. There is a character a chapter that draw us deep into the lives of 12 women who identify as black from various backgrounds and experiences and who's lives are intertwined.
Young and old, some become rich, most are struggling along. A few are embittered, while others are full of hope. They fall in love with men and women, and they challenge the limits of that binary structure. They rise from a vast palette of racial and national backgrounds stretching from Northern Europe to Africa. Some, particularly the older ones, worry about their heritage being washed away in the insistent flow of white culture. As the novel progresses, their connections accrue gradually, allowing us moments of understanding spiked with surprise. Together, all these women present a cross-section of Britain.