Fruit of the drunken tree
Monthly Drop-in book club -- thursday, april 23, 2026
Join our book club!
Each month we read a book by an international author. Our hour-long Zoom chats are lively, thought-provoking, and reminiscent of our college days. You are welcome to join at any time!
Our next meeting is on Thursday, April 23rd at 7:00pm
Our April book is:
A Heart So White, by Javier Marías
Below is a quick summary of the book frorm Goodreads.
Javier Marías's A Heart So White chronicles with unnerving insistence the relentless power of the past. Juan knows little of the interior life of his father Ranz; but when Juan marries, he begins to consider the past anew, and begins to ponder what he doesn't really want to know. Secrecy—its possible convenience, its price, and even its civility—hovers throughout the novel. A Heart So White becomes a sort of anti-detective story of human nature. Intrigue; the sins of the father; the fraudulent and the genuine; marriage and strange repetitions of violence: Marías elegantly sends shafts of inquisitory light into the shadows and on to the costs of ambivalence. ("My hands are of your colour; but I shame/To wear a heart so white"—Shakespeare's Macbeth.)
**If you have any trouble with the Zoom log in, please email lkaci@post.harvard.edu so that someone can address the issue right away.**
Harvard Club of Southern Connecticut is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Monthly Book Club
Time: April 23, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Every month on the Last Thu, 35 occurrence(s)
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Monthly: https://harvardalumni.zoom.us/meeting/tJYocuisqDspE9RUNr2joqEnqOGNUgfVe-hN/ics?icsToken=DPf0MZHxrqTSXjqpmwAALAAAANqZuzVSApVF_bNkwE9weFASzfcUFfX8Z3bKcyzmzbOJEY-JHRJ5ZZclubJdCk-4EmLNayiiSSlW0F6gMTAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=gMig3fP1QFeCe9ywZFmiLg
Join Zoom Meeting
https://harvardalumni.zoom.us/j/92551460390?pwd=xvazWU0WcEjwnFA3K5Ha2nWkXKXr0v.1
Meeting ID: 925 5146 0390
Passcode: 187228
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https://harvardalumni.zoom.us/meetings/92551460390/invitations?signature=zzQ3kd14YDwLcQFSbmYGxBkJsAkQfzGD4qtQlGVJ1SQ
Here is a list of books the club has read so far:
Madonna in a Fur Coat, by Sabahattin Ali (Turkish writer)
A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami (Japanese writer)
Foreigner, by Nachid Rachlin (Iranian writer)
The Concert, by Ismail Kadare (Albanian writer)
This is Happiness, by Niall Williams (Irish writer)
Sweetness, by Torgny Lindgren (Swedish writer)
Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither, by Sara Baume (Irish writer)
Wickett’s Remedy, by Myla Goldberg (American writer)
Immortality, by Milan Kundera (Czech writer)
An Artist of the Floating World, by Kazuo Ishiguro (Japanese-British writer)
Cambridge, by Caryl Phillips (St. Kitts & Nevis/British writer)
Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who, by William Saroyan (Armenian-American writer)
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck (American writer)
The Life of God (As Told by Himself), by Franco Ferrucci (Italian-American writer)
A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor (American writer)
Free, by Lea Ypi (Albanian writer)
A Short Tale of Shame, by Angel Igov (Bulgarian writer)
Nada, by Carmen Laforet (Spanish writer)
Double Negative, by Ivan Vladislavic (South African writer)
Blind Faith, by Sagarika Ghose (Indian writer)
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (Indian writer)
So Long a Letter, by Mariama Ba (Senegalese writer)
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie (Chinese writer)
Raising Sparks, by Ariel Kahn (Israeli-American writer)
Giants in the Earth, by O. E. Rølvaag (Norwegian writer)
Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck (German writer)
Vi, by Kim Thúy (Vietnamese-Canadian writer)
On the Edge of Reason, by Miroslav Krleža (Croatian writer)
The Bad Girl, by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peruvian writer)
In the Country of Others, by Leila Slimani (French-Moroccan writer)
Queen Esther, by John Irving (American writer)
Fruit of the Drunken Tree, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Columbian writer)