18.04.2019 - ‘Transcription’ (2018) by Kate Atkinson Sandra, Maria, Thomas and Andrew discuss Kate Atkinson’s 2018 novel ‘Transcription’. In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of MI5...
12.03.2019 - ‘On Chesil Beach’ (2007), by Ian McEwan A stunning ‘novella’… It is July 1961. Edward and Florence, young Innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their room they struggle to...
18.02.2019 - ‘Educated’ (2018) by Tara Westover Maria, Georg, Heinz, Sandra and Andrew discuss this extraordinary book: ‘an unflicnching account of love and brutality, of the strength of blood ties and the power of imagination’ (Sarah...
23.01.2019 - ‘Unsheltered’ (2018) by Barbara Kingsolver Maria, Sandra, Susie and Andrew discuss the parallel storylines, contrasting characters, diverse themes and original narrative structure of the novel. ‘How could two hardworking people do everything...
23.01.2019 - ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ (2012) by Rachel Joyce When Harold Frau leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the...
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....
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...
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...
