The new season of our Book Club will run from November 2025 to May 2026. The theme is Book Award Winners and the selected books are: The Book Club will meet online every 6-8 weeks from 19:30 to 21:00 (CET). Our discussion will revolve around 2 elements, namely story (plot + character development) and style (writing style + length). We will also score each book so that, … Continue reading Book Club Season 26
“How We Disappeared” by Jing-Jing Lee (Singapore) Synopsis Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked. Only three survivors remain, one of them a tiny child. In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military rape camp. In the year 2000, her mind is … Continue reading How We Disappeared
Review Ismailov’s “The Devils’ Dance” is a novel that demands patience and perseverance from its readers. Initially daunting and complex, this novel gradually unfolds its layers to reveal a multi-faceted narrative that both frustrates and fascinates. At first, the book may feel like wading through mud, as one reader aptly described it. The intricate web of characters and the poetic prose were found to be … Continue reading “The Devils’ Dance” by Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan)
“Man Tiger” by Eka Kurniawan (Indonesia) Review Even though it took them a while to get used to the writing style, which weaves back and forward through moments in time, readers agreed that the book, with its visceral descriptions and an evocative setting, was easy to read. They found some characters sympathetic, but didn’t warm to most of them as they felt that they lacked … Continue reading Man Tiger
“Before the Coffee gets Cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Japan) Review There were mixed feelings about this book, with most readers not really getting into the story at all and some enjoying it a lot. They found the first part a bit unconvincing, with a lot of repetitive passages which they felt slowed down the pace. But they agreed that the remaining three parts flowed better. … Continue reading Before the Coffee gets Cold
“The Guru of Love” by Samrat Upadhyay (Nepal) Synopsis Ramchandra is a math teacher earning a low wage and living in a small apartment with his wife and two children. Moonlighting as a tutor, he engages in an illicit affair with one of his tutees, Malati, a beautiful, impoverished young woman who is also a new mother. She provides for him what his wife, who … Continue reading The Guru of Love
“The Travelling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa (Japan) Review The four shortlisted books for this year’s Summer Reading Group varied greatly in style of writing and author’s experience, from the seasoned writer to the relative newcomer. When it came time for voting for Best Summer Read 2018, two books tied for first place: “The Travelling Cat Chronicles” and “Warlight”. One reader commented on this result saying how … Continue reading Best Summer Read 2018 – The Travelling Cat Chronicles
“Human Acts” by Han Kang (South Korea) Review Readers described this book as a lyrically written account of a horrendous event and its aftermath. They felt that the descriptions swayed from hard and heavy – with the passages on decomposing corpses and torture – to ethereal – with the ghost reflecting on what happens after death and the survivors’ memories. Readers found the linked stories … Continue reading Human Acts
Nicola's Book Club 