Join us on Zoom for now to discuss recent works written by foreign authors. Expand your literary sensibilities! If you're interested, send me an email or call the store to be added to our list and receive an invitation to participate.

Our selected titles for the rest of 2020 and the first few months of 2021 are:

June - "A Devil Comes to Town" by Paolo Maurensig (the Devil shows up in a village of egotistical writers, claiming to be a big-time publisher . . . ITALY)

July - "Fu Ping" by Wang Anyi (an orphaned girl set for an arranged marriage discovers the bustle of Shanghai in the early years of the People's Republic of China, growing ever resistant to life as a countryside wife . . . CHINA)

August - "The Odyssey of an Apple Thief" by Moishe Rozenbaumas (the author traces his Lithuanian boyhood, his years in Europe and Central Asia, his escape from Soviet Russia and the new life he builds in Paris . . . LITHUANIA)

September - "The Remainder" by Alia Trabucco Zeran (three friends in modern-day Santiago take a road trip across the Andes, confronting generations of family pain and the legacy of Chile's dictatorship . . . CHILE)

October - "River of Fire" by Qurratulain Hyder (considered the most important work of 20th century Urdu fiction, this book follows four central characters over the course of two millenia in India . . . INDIA)

November - "Sickle" by Ruth Lillegraven (a lyrical novel about a 19th century love in Norway . . . NORWAY)

December - "Air of Solitude" and "Requiem" by Gustave Roud (in this two-part work, the author, living on his grandfather's farm, tries to piece together the past and the present, contemplating rural bodies and a male laborer of the Vaudois . . . SWITZERLAND)

January - "Arid Dreams" by Duanwad Pimwana (thirteen stories that explore race, gender, and disillusionment in working-class Thailand . . . THAILAND)

February - "Afrotopia" by Felwine Sarr (an examination of Africa's unique communal values and landscape of traditions, culling from the works of African intellectuals, artists, and musicians . . . SENEGAL)

March - "Princess Bari" by Hwang Sok-yong (the story of a young girl who escapes famine and death in 1990s North Korea . . . SOUTH KOREA)

April - "Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag" by Monika Zgustova (an unexpectedly uplifting account of women's suffering and resilience in Stalin's forced labor camps, diligently transcribed in the kitchens and living rooms of nine survivors . . . CZECHOSLOVAKIA/RUSSIA)

*If you are interested in buying any of the above titles, either to participate in the book club or for your own pleasure and enlightenment, please put your order in at our cash counter. In case we encounter difficulties ordering any of the above titles, we will select others as needed from the following optional titles:

Option 1 - "The Scent of Buenos Aires" by Hebe Uhart (stories that zoom into the everyday moments of Argentina's small towns and people . . . ARGENTINA)

Option 2 - "The Siege of Troy" by Theodor Kallifatides (a retelling of "The Iliad" from the point of view of a young Greek teacher who tries to contextualize the Nazi occupation to her students through the history of myths . . . GREECE)

Option 3 - "I'm Writing You from Tehran" by Delphine Minoui (a journalist returns to her family home in Iran and chronicles the country's changes over the course of a decade . . . IRAN)

Option 4 - "The Book of Disappearance" by Ibtisam Azem (a novel set in contemporary Tel Aviv 48 hours after Israelis discover that all of their Palestinian neighbors have vanished . . . ISRAEL/PALESTINE)

**Optional titles not used beforehand will be added to the 2021 list.