The year of the death of ricardo reis
Monthly Drop-in book club -- thursday, June 18, 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, June 18th at 7:00pm
Our June book is:
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, by Jose Saramago.
Below is a quick summary of the book frorm the author's own website.
"A multifaceted time. Labyrinthine. The stories of human societies. Ricardo Reis arrives in Lisbon at the end of December 1935. He stays until September 1936. A character from another fiction, that of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms. And an inverse movement, right from the start: 'Here where the sea ends and the land begins'; turning Camões' verse upside down: 'Where the land ends and the sea begins'. In Camões, the movement is from land to sea; in Saramago's book, we have Ricardo Reis returning to Portugal by sea. The epic movement of departure is replaced. Once again, history in Saramago's writing. And the relationships between life and death. Ricardo Reis arrives in Lisbon at the end of December and Fernando Pessoa died on November 30th. Ricardo Reis visits him in the cemetery. A complex time.
Fascism consolidates itself in Portugal."
**If you have any trouble with the Zoom log in, please email lkaci@post.harvard.edu right away.**
Harvard Club of Southern Connecticut is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Monthly Book Club
Time: June 9, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 925 5146 0390
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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)
A Heart So White, by Javier Marias (Spanish writer)