Tooting Book Club

Death at Intervals by José Saramago
(208 pages)

In an unnamed country on the first day of the new year, people stop dying. Amid the general public, there is great celebration: flags are hung out on balconies and people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity - eternal life. Death is on strike.

Soon, though, the residents begin to suffer. For several months undertakers face bankruptcy, the church is forced to reinvent its doctrine, and local 'maphia' smuggle those on the brink of death over the border where they can expire naturally.

Death does return eventually, but with a new, courteous approach - delivering violet warning letters to her victims. But what can death do when a letter is unexpectedly returned?

The cost of the meetup is £2 (cash).

Looking forward to seeing you there!

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

(336 pages)

On September 3, 1939, the day of the Spanish exiles' splendid arrival in Chile, the Second World War broke out in Europe.

Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, the pianist Roser, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile.

When opportunity to seek refuge arises, they board a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda to Chile, the promised 'long petal of sea and wine and snow'. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.

The cost of the meetup is £2 (cash).

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang

(336 pages)

When failed writer June Hayward witnesses her rival Athena Liu die in a freak accident, she sees her opportunity… and takes it.

So what if it means stealing Athena’s final manuscript?

So what if it means ‘borrowing’ her identity?

And so what if the first lie is only the beginning…

Finally, June has the fame she always deserved. But someone is about to expose her…

What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.

The cost of the meetup is £2 (cash).

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Tooting Book Club - current book list
Here is the list of books on the current list - if you would like to add a book to the list please bring your suggestion to the next meeting.

The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn (356 pages)
Kindle £4.99: Amazon paperback £8.49
This is the story of an old English manor house by the sea, with crumbling chimneys and a library full of dusty hardbacks. It is the story of the three children who grow up there, and the adventures they create for themselves whilst the grown-ups entertain endless party guests.

It is the story of a whale that washes up on the beach whose bones are claimed by a 12 year old orphan girl with big ambitions and an even bigger imagination. But as the children grow to adulthood, another story has been unfolding…and when the war finally takes centre stage they find themselves cast, unrehearsed, into roles they never expected to play.

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (288 pages)
Kindle £5.99: Amazon paperback £6.29
Set in Maine, this short story cycle comprises 13 stories that are interrelated but narratively discontinuous and non-chronological. Olive Kitteridge might be described by some as a battle axe or as brilliantly pushy; by others as the kindest person they have ever met. Olive herself has always been certain that she is 100% correct about everything, although lately her certitude has been shaken. This indomitable character appears at the centre of these narratives that comprise the book. In each of them we watch Olive, a retired schoolteacher as she struggles to make sense of the changes in her life and the lives of those around her.

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (352 pages)
Kindle £4.99; Amazon paperback £7.35

Novel takes place in Shaker Heights Ohio, focusing on 2 families in the 1990s who are brought together through their children. Elena Richardson thrives on structure and rules and her family. When Mia Warren, an artist who has been living a nomadic lifestyle as a single mother arrives, it threatens everything the Richardsons stand for. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese American baby a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town - and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymoon (400 pages)
Kindle £2.99; Amazon paperback £8.97

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than... fine?

HARDCOVER WAITLIST
Yellow-face - Rebecca Kuang (336 pages)
Kindle £7.99: Amazon paperback not released until 23 May £9.19

Satirises the publishing industry with a tale of a struggling writer who passes off her recently deceased friend’s book as her own. As evidence threatens her stolen success, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves - with deadly consequences.

What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.