7 Books That Bring Elderly Characters to Life

Books

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Fiction is often dominated by stories about young people, from bildungsromans that trace their journey from childhood to maturity, to stories about those in the early stages of adulthood or even middle age. It is almost as though only younger people have interesting stories to tell. Readers rarely encounter books that delve into the hearts of elderly characters, bringing them to life on the page. I recently had the pleasure of reading one such book recently, and I will never forget how much of an eye-opener it was!

In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books that bring elderly characters to life. Whether featuring a closeted grandpa in the UK or a sexually liberated seventy-five-year-old Nigerian woman in San Francisco, the books on this list prove that elderly characters don’t have to conform to our preconceived notions, and that great fiction can centre around them too!

Read our recommendations below.

Books
waiting for the barbarians  
Author: J. M. Coetzee
Genre: Fiction
 

In Waiting for the Barbarians, South African Nobel laureate, J. M. Coetzee, explores the reality of imperialism from the point of view of an elderly character, the magistrate of a calm frontier settlement of ‘The Empire’. 

After many years of peaceful administration, the magistrate suddenly finds himself thrust in the middle of the ugliness of imperial rule when an investigator, Colonel Joll, from The Empire arrives to begin an expedition into the land beyond the frontier. The Empire has learnt that the indigenous people of the area, derogatorily called barbarians, are planning an attack against the frontiers, and the colonel will stop at nothing to get the truth from his ‘barbarian’ captives. 

The magistrate is a learned, intelligent man with a nagging curiosity and a voracious sexual appetite, which he often satiates with escapades with young women. Though he wants nothing more than to end his decades of service to The Empire in peace and tranquillity, he cannot bear to sit by and do nothing while innocent people suffer.

Books
mr loverman 
AUTHOR: Bernardine evaristo
GENRE: fiction
 

Mr Loverman is British-Nigerian author and Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo’s seventh novel. It explores the elderly Caribbean community in Britain, focusing on a seventy-four-year-old Antiguan-born man named Barry.  

A husband, father, and grandfather, Barrington Jedidiah Walker has kept an important secret from his family for 60 years: since he was fifteen, he has been in a secret relationship with his childhood friend and soulmate, Morris. Although Barry’s wife, Carmel, knows he has been cheating on her, she can’t imagine that it is with a man. Finally tired of living a double life, Barry wants to divorce Carmen and move in with Morris. But is it too late for him to live the life he has always desired?

Books
broken glass
AUTHOR: alain mabanckou
GENRE: fiction
 

Published in 2005, Broken Glass is a novel by Congolese author, Alain Mabanckou. Known in some circles as the Samuel Beckett of Africa, Mabanckou has given readers a book stunning not only for its subject matter but also for its style. The novel alludes to 170 classics of international literature, contains no full stops, and instead uses a series of commas, with sentences that don’t start with capital letters. Reminiscent of NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names for its unconventional names, Broken Glass is the story of Broken Glass, a 64-year-old ex-schoolteacher who loves alcohol, especially red wine. He is a regular at Credit Gone West, a local bar owned by Stubborn Snail. Aware of Broken Glass’s writing ambitions, and not wanting his bar to be forgotten, Stubborn Snail gives Broken Glass a notebook ‘to record, witness and pass on the history of the place.’ Broken Glass sets to work, documenting his days at the bar, and the humorous, dramatic, and sad lives of other regular customers of the bar.

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Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun  
AUTHOR: sarah ladipo manyika
GENRE: fiction
 

Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s 2016 novel, Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun, is one stunner of a novel! Not many books these days explore the sexuality of elderly women, providing ‘a nuanced study of the erotic yearnings of an older woman’. 

In the novel, we meet Dr Morayo Da Silva, a seventy-five-year-old Nigerian woman living in San Francisco. Full of joie de vivre and always eager to experience the world, she reads novels, goes on road trips in her vintage Porsche and enjoys starting conversations with random strangers. This way, she meets several characters she never would have met otherwise. 

Manyika paints a picture of an elderly woman with a full life and desires she doesn’t shy away from. A non-conformist, Morayo defies our ideas of what elderly people, and especially elder women, should be like.

Books
the woman next door
Author: yewande omotoso 
Genre: fiction
 

After successful lives in their different careers, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino, now in their 80s, wish to live out the rest of their lives in relative calm and comfort. However, each won’t let the other have peace. Neighbours in a fictional affluent neighbourhood in Cape Town, South Africa, the two women are always at loggerheads. They come from very different backgrounds: Hortensia is Black, an international fashion designer and the only Black homeowner in the neighbourhood, while Marion is Jewish and a retired successful architect.  

One day, an unexpected event forces the women to have a conversation without devolving into bickering. They share stories about their pasts, each woman learning about the other’s life, experiences, and regrets.  

But is this the beginning of a new friendship, or is it too late for Hortense and Marion to change? Nigerian-Barbadian author based in South Africa, Yewande Omotoso, also explores apartheid in South Africa, presenting a poignant commentary on white guilt and reconciliation efforts.

Books
the old man and the medal
AUTHOR: ferdinand oyono
GENRE: fiction
 

Written by late Cameroonian politician and author, Ferdinand Oyono, The Old Man and the Medal is a poignant work of post-colonial literature that satirizes the relationship between colonial powers and their African colonies.  

The story is about an elderly villager, Emeka. Emeka is a God-fearing man loyal to the French colonial masters. He sends two sons to fight in World War II and donates his land to the colonial administration to build a church. Both of his sons die at war. These services earn him the attention of the French government, and Emeka is awarded a medal of friendship by the government. However, on the very day he is receive the medal, Emeka experiences a complete change of heart, and his eyes open to the ugly realities of colonialism.

Books
the secret lives of baba segi’s wives 
AUTHOR: lola shoneyin  
GENRE: fiction
 

Published in 2010, Lola Shoneyin’s debut novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives has already attained modern classic status. It is a story about polygamy and the secrets women keep to safeguard their lives. 

The central character is Baba Segi, a wealthy, semi-literate polygamist living in Ibadan. Already with three wives and many children, Baba Segi introduces a third, Bolanle, a young fresh university graduate traumatized by an incidence of sexual assault. Now with a young new bride, Baba Segi expects to settle into a life of bliss. However, he is thrown into distress when all efforts to make Bolanle pregnant are futile.  

Following the advice of his acquaintances in a local bar, he takes Bolanle to the hospital for a medical check, convinced that she has a fertility problem. When her tests come out normal, the doctor invites Baba Segi for his own tests. The result of the tests will threaten all Baba Segi believes of himself and his life, revealing secrets that his wives and workers have kept from him for many years.