What a time to be alive for readers
Every time we step into a book store we are blown away by the amount of great quality literature available. The migration and diaspora literature genre is now incredibly prolific, also thanks to a new generation of authors grown up in the diaspora publishing at fast pace.
New and well established authors are making it ever so easy to fall in love with migration and diaspora literature and to engage with themes such as migration, displacement, border brutality, as well as identity, belonging and their intersections.
In June 2018, after years discussing with each other the books we love, we decided to open the conversation and to launch our Migration & Diaspora Book Club. We meet every 2-3 months in central-ish locations to talk about a novel agreed a couple of months in advance.
No background knowledge about migration or literature is required, and we usually select books that can be enjoyed also by people whose mother language is not English. Our book club is free, but we issue a limited number of tickets to make sure that the conversation remains meaningful and accessible. If you are interested, you are welcome to join us for just one meeting or to attend the club regularly.
Our next book
Everything I Never Told You,
by Celeste Ng
Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.
So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Join our first remote Book Club!
When? 23rd of April
Where? Skype
What have we read so far?
The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon
London, 1950s. Amid cold afternoons and grey skies, a group of people recently arrived from the West Indies are making the city their new home.
Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid
Nadia and Saeed meet and fall in love. Soon after that, their unnamed city becomes the theatre of a war, and Nadia and Saeed decide to leave.
In Our Mad and Furious City, by Guy Gunaratne
Four blocks of council houses in North London are the whole universe for teenager Selvon, Yusuf and Ardan, until their friendship and allegiances are put to hard test.
Home Fire, by Kamila Shamsie
When London-raised Parvaiz decides to join ISIS, his sisters are left to face the consequences of his actions.
Celestial Bodies, by Jokha Alharthi
In the village of al-Awafi in Oman, we encounter three sisters: Mayya, who marries Abdallah after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from a sense of duty; and Khawla who rejects all offers while waiting for her beloved, who has emigrated to Canada.
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
Okonkwo is the greatest wrestler and warrior alive, and his fame spreads throughout West Africa like a bush-fire in the harmattan. But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial governors have arrived in the village.
