“One Night, Markovitch” by Ayelet Gundar-Goshan (Israel)

Review

Readers enjoyed this book describing it as an intriguing and refreshing read. They found it easy to get into and sympathised with most of the characters. They liked how the two protagonists develop from caricatures to individuals with depth and substance. Readers agreed that the story was both funny and annoying at the beginning due its exaggerated descriptions and repetitive scenes. They said it also felt a bit surreal at times with the smell of oranges and peaches permeating both the homes and bodies of some of the characters! As the story unfolds and becomes darker, they appreciated the individual struggles of the different characters and felt that some of them represented elements of their country. Readers liked the historical context and found it interesting to learn about some of the events involved in the creation of Israel. Overall, it averaged an 8.2 out of 10.

Synopsis

In the late 1930s, two men – Yaacov Markovitch, perennially unlucky in love, and Zeev Feinberg, virile owner of a lustrous moustache – are crossing the sea to marry women they have never met. They will rescue them from a Europe on the brink of catastrophe, bring them to the Jewish homeland and go their separate ways. But when Markovitch is paired with the beautiful Bella he vows to make… Read more

Story Connector Literature Circle (Oct 2016-Sep 2017)

• Book Club Season 20
• Self-Help Spring Season 2017
• Summer Reading Group 2017

PLUS

One-off discussions
“Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri – Oct 2016
“One Night, Markovitch” by Ayelet Gundar-Goshan (Israel) – Jan 2017
“The Discreet Hero” by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) – May 2017

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From October 2016 to September 2017, Nicola tested out a new Story Connector Literature Circle. The idea behind this reading group came from her desire to take her two passions – world literature and personal development – and offer them in a combined package. Nicola was also fascinated by the many reasons WHY we read and wanted to explore them further with a group of like-minded readers.

The role of Story Connector in a Literature Circle is to try to find connections between the story and the outside world. This means connecting what we read with our own life, to what happens at work or in the community, to similar events at other times and places, or to other books we have read.

Nicola says author Ursula K. Le Guin sums up her reason for reading when she said: We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.