544. HAVE YOU READ? FIVE NEW NOVELS (Part II)

Margaret Hallissy

(IN PERSON Only for April and May)

April 10: Dan Chaon, One of Us. ISBN 978-1250175236. IN PERSON -- “They was born out the same womb, two minutes apart, Rosalie says, and her head lolls back.” Thirteen years later, in 1915, twins Bolt and Eleanor are orphaned. At first they are exploited by a miscreant pretending to be their uncle. Their recourse seems like an adolescent’s dream: they run away to a traveling circus. This “Emporium of Wonders,” led by its founder Mr. Jingling, becomes a makeshift family of “misfits and marginalized” (Amazon review). As the twins travel across America, parallels emerge between the small world of the circus and the larger world of the country.

May 8: Ian McEwan, What We Can Know. ISBN 978-0593804728. IN PERSON -- “On 20 May 2119 I took the overnight ferry from Port Marlborough.” This date is the first clue that the novel is a futuristic portrayal of a time when Western society has been radically altered. Rising seas (as in Wild Dark Shore) have destroyed the literary heritage of the United Kingdom. Nostalgia for a lost past leads an academic researcher, Thomas Metcalfe, to search for a love poem written in 2014, read aloud once, and lost. As might be expected, his investigations unearth more than just the poem.

10:00 – 12 noon

2 Sessions

Fridays, April 10 and May 8

Fee:  $60