School IS Cool: book choice!

For October we again return to one of literature's most enduring subjects: school and its strange institutions that shape us.
Join us for another conversation about what schools teach us, what they fail to teach us, and how their echo follows us lifelong.

As usually we ended up choosing three different but not that different books, all with either outrageous teachers or outrageous teachings at their core. Help us decide who’ll fill in our long study nights!

a) The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

A sharp and original novel following a Palestinian teacher in New York whose carefully curated life begins to unravel. A story about education, identity, class, and the strange currencies that govern modern life.

b) Black Bag by Luke Kennard

A darkly funny and unsettling, Booker longlisted, campus novel for which we’ll let this one sentence speak: How will Dr Blend’s students react to someone zipped into on oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of autumn term lectures?

c) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

A modern classic set in an Edinburgh girls' school, centered on the charismatic and controversial Miss Jean Brodie and the students who fall under her influence. A brilliant, witty exploration of teaching, authority, and the shaping of young minds.