Books around the world Drop-in book club

thursday, november 19, 2026

Our September book is: 

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, by Italian Author Italo Calvino


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, November 19th at 7:00pm


Italo Calvino’s masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the book’s central character.

Based on a witty analogy between the reader’s desire to finish the story and the lover’s desire to consummate his or her passion, IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book—IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER, by Italo Calvino, of course—are constantly and comically frustrated. In between chasing missing chapters of the book, the hapless readers tangle with an international conspiracy, a rogue translator, an elusive novelist, a disintegrating publishing house, and several oppressive governments. The result is a literary labyrinth of storylines that interrupt one another—an Arabian Nights of the postmodern age.


**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: Aug 20, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
        Every month on the Third Thu, 36 occurrence(s)


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Meeting ID: 925 5146 0390
Passcode: 187228

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In our "Books Around the World" Book Club,

so far we have read books by authors of 30+ nationalities.
Here is the list for your reference.

Albanian

  • The Concert — Ismail Kadare
  • Free — Lea Ypi

American

  • Wickett’s Remedy — Myla Goldberg
  • Cannery Row — John Steinbeck
  • A Good Man Is Hard to Find — Flannery O’Connor
  • Queen Esther — John Irving

Armenian-American

  • Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who — William Saroyan

Bulgarian

  • A Short Tale of Shame — Angel Igov

Chinese

  • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress — Dai Sijie

Colombian

  • Fruit of the Drunken Tree — Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Croatian

  • On the Edge of Reason — Miroslav Krleža

Czech

  • Immortality — Milan Kundera

Danish

  • The Trouble with Happiness — Tove Ditlevsen

French-Moroccan

  • In the Country of Others — Leïla Slimani

French

  • The Anomaly — Hervé Le Tellier

German

  • Three Comrades — Erich Maria Remarque
  • Kairos — Jenny Erpenbeck

Hungarian

  • Eye of the Monkey — Krisztina Tóth

Indian

  • Blind Faith — Sagarika Ghose
  • A Fine Balance — Rohinton Mistry

Iranian

  • Foreigner — Nachid Rachlin

Irish

  • This Is Happiness — Niall Williams
  • Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither — Sara Baume

Israeli-American

  • Raising Sparks — Ariel Kahn

Italian-American

  • The Life of God (As Told by Himself) — Franco Ferrucci

Japanese

  • A Wild Sheep Chase — Haruki Murakami

Japanese-British

  • An Artist of the Floating World — Kazuo Ishiguro

Nigerian

  • I Do Not Come to You by Chance — Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Norwegian

  • Giants in the Earth — O. E. Rølvaag

 

Pakistani

  • Rebel English Academy — Mohammed Hanif

Peruvian

  • The Bad Girl — Mario Vargas Llosa

Portuguese

  • The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis — José Saramago

Senegalese

  • So Long a Letter — Mariama Bâ

South African

  • Double Negative — Ivan Vladislavic

Spanish

  • Nada — Carmen Laforet
  • A Heart So White — Javier Marías

St. Kitts & Nevis / British

  • Cambridge — Caryl Phillips

Swedish

  • Sweetness — Torgny Lindgren

Turkish

  • Madonna in a Fur Coat — Sabahattin Ali

Vietnamese-Canadian

  • Vi — Kim Thúy