23.01.2019 - ‘The Sympathizer‘ (2015), by Viet Thanh Nguyen Tom, Sandra and Andrew discuss the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese American Viet Thanh Nguyen deals with the psychological aftermath of the Vietnam...
15.10.2018 - ‘Brooklyn’ (2009) by Colm Toibin “In the US there would be plenty of work for someone like you, and with good pay.” It is Ireland in the early 1950s, and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce....
10.09.2018 - Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince Texts read and music played: Hesketh Pearson: In Gaol (from The Life of Oscar Wilde) Hesketh Pearson: Escape to France (from The Life of Oscar Wilde) Film Review of The Happy Prince (2018), dir. Rupert Everett Oscar...
13.08.2018 - ‘A Week in December’ (2010), Sebastian Faulks Georg, Heinz, Sandra and Andrew discuss this richly entertaining and highly rewarding novel. London, the week before Christmas, 2007. Seven wintry days to track the lives of seven...
11.07.2018 - Angie, Alex, Heinz, Sandra and Andrew discuss the novel. ‘Haunted by a freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they...
06.06.2018 - Sandra, Alex, Heinz and Andrew discuss the novel. Schmuel – a young idealistic student – has abandoned his studies in Jerusalem, taking a live-in job as a companion to a cantankerous old man. But Schmuel quickly becomes obsessed with...
09.04.2018 - ‘Story of Your Life’ by Ted Chiang Sonja, Heinz, Thomas, Dee, Sandra and Andrew discuss this sci-fi short story. How does the linguist Louise communicate with the Aliens (‘Heptapods’)? What do we learn of her daughter, who...
14.03.2018 - Linda, Maria, Sonja, Sandra and Andrew discuss the novel. World War 2 is over and Japan sets about rebuilding its shattered cities. Masujo Ono, an ageing painter, looks back over his life and assesses his career, which coincided with the rise of...
28.02.2018 - Set across Istanbul and Oxford, from the 1980s to 2016, ‘Three Daughters of Eve’ is a sweeping tale of faith and friendship, tradition and modernity, love and an unexpected betrayal. Peri, a wealthy Turkish housewife and mother, in on...
09.01.2018 - ‘Every Third Thought’, Robert McCrum, (Picador, 2017): On Life, Death and the Endgame The question is no longer ‘Who am I?’ but ‘How long have I got?’ In 1995, at the age of 42, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic...
