Exit West is a contemplative take on what it means to be a migrant in the 21st century. Nadia and Saeed are the central characters; two young professionals from an unnamed country torn apart by war and conflict. Their lives change forever when they exit through mysterious doors that transport them to other parts of […]
Books over Brunch. Sunday 8th May 2022. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid. Read More »
A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of
Books over Brunch. Sunday 10th April 2022. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi Read More »
Quietly trailblazing in its depiction of homosexuality in Britain’s elder Caribbean community, Evaristo’s sparkling, nuanced novel revolves around Barrington Walker and his struggle to admit his sexuality to his friends and loved ones. Compassionate and vibrant, Mr Loverman sings with humanity and the need to be true to your innermost feelings.
Books over Brunch, The Subplot. Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo. Sunday 27th March, 2022 Read More »
Books over Brunch, Sunday 13th March , 2022. Smoothbean Cafe Jean-ChrisSomething has got Aurel Timescu’s attention: an unsolved and apparently unsolvable crime. A vacationer has been found hanged. And it is a crime that will go unpunished if Aurel isn’t ready for the fight of his life. Aurel Timescu’s French is tinged with a Romanian
The Hanged Man of Conakry, by Jean-Christophe Rufin Read More »
Book over Brunch the Subplot on Sunday, 27th February 2022. Smoothbean Love Virtually, by Daniel Glattauer. It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it takes to spark a mutual interest in each other,
Love Virtually, by Daniel Glattauer Read More »
Books over Brunch, Sunday February 13th, 2022. Smoothbean Cafe. Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written–let alone published–anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant
The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Read More »
Books over Brunch, The Subplot on Sunday, January 30th 2022. Matthews Yard. For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at
The Best of Me, by David Sedaris Read More »
Books over Brunch, Sunday 16th January 2022. Published by Molly Keane in 1981, Good Behaviour tells a story of Irish society in the early twentieth century. Narrated by the daughter of the St. Charles family, Aroon, nothing is as it seems. A cold mother, a gay brother and a similarly inclined love interest all unseen
Good Behaviour, Molly Keane Read More »
Special Event. The novel is set in Crystal Palace, for this event we’ll meet at the station and identify the places we want to visit in connection with the novel. South London, 2008. Two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning, on the brink of acceptance or revolution. Melissa has a new baby and
