Join us as we discuss six recent international novels that have made a big impact despite their slim length. In settings that span the globe, we will examine how these diverse writers have managed to weave magic in a mere 200 pages or less: Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel depicts an eccentric houseboat community living along the Thames as they float between loneliness and connection. The Sense of an Ending from Julian Barnes follows a middle-aged man as he confronts a forgotten past. In the Café of Lost Youth, Nobel Prize-winner, Patrick Modiano, explores memory and forgetting in the shadowy world of a 1950's Paris café. The Vegetarian from South Korean Han Kang is a poetic and haunting story of one woman’s struggle to break free from violence. Orbital, Samantha Harvey's 2024 Booker prize- winning novel takes us aboard the International Space Station where six astronauts navigate bereavement, loneliness and spiritual fatigue. Our sixth book is still TBD.
Week 1: Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Week 2: Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Week 3: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Week4: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Week 5: In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano
Week 6: In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano
Week 7: The Vegetarian by Han Hang
Week 8: The Vegetarian by Han Hang
Week 9: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Week 10: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Week 11: TBD
Week 12: TBD
• Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending, Vintage, 2012.
• Fitzgerald, Penelope, Offshore, Mariner Books, January, 1998.
• Harvey, Samantha. Orbital, Grove, 2024.
• Kang, Han, The Vegetarian. Hogarth, 2016.
• Modiano, Patrick, In the Café of Lost Youth, New York Review Books.