London Wine and Dine Book Club

After reading Whalefall back in August, we will go see the film adaptation as it arrives in cinemas! Released on Friday, we will head to Curzon Aldgate to catch this undersea thriller of a film, and then grab a drink to discuss what we’ve just watched.

Please let me know by message if you’re coming along so we can all meet up after!

In the second meeting for October, we will read the Halloween-adjacent The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill. 'Through the gripping micro-history of a family tragedy, we glimpse an entire society caught in agonized transition between supernatural obsessions and the age of enlightenment. We see, in short, the birth of the modern world.' (Daunt Books)

'Charting the events and psychological effects of witch-hunting in a small community of early settlers in 1650s Massachusetts in gripping and thought-provoking prose, The Ruin of All Witches reads like a haunting real-life folktale.’
-Waterstones

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56587381-the-ruin-of-all-witches

We will have the meeting at Pane Cunzato, a small Sicilian restaurant next door to The Atlantis Bookshop, specialising in magic and the occult. So come along for some spooky discussion of this fascinating historical work.

N.B. We will be charging an event fee of £3, non-refundable, to discourage no-shows and contribute to the running costs of the group. Please only sign up if you intend to come along as space is limited to make for an effective discussion!

In November, our first meeting will see us read Flesh, David Szalay's Booker Prize winning effort from 2025. This is his sixth novel and has catapulted him to international fame. 'Spare and penetrating, Flesh is the finest novel yet by a master of realism, asking profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.' (Book jacket)

'At once panoramic and intimate, this masterful novel from the author of All That Man Is traces the path of a life brought low by outside events and ranges from post-communist Hungary to the London of the super-rich.'
-Waterstones

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/214152261-flesh

We will hold the meeting at Comptoir Libanais Liverpool St (situated behind the station in Broadgate Circle). So join us for some tasty Turkish food as we delve in this much-lauded novel!

N.B. We will be charging an event fee of £3, non-refundable, to discourage no-shows and contribute to the running costs of the group. Please only sign up if you intend to come along as space is limited to make for an effective discussion!

In our second November meeting, we will dive back into the 19th century with Aluísio Azevedo's The Slum (or O Cortiço in the original Portuguese). First published in 1890, the novel, set in Azevedo's native Brazil, is 'one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed novels ever written about Brazil. Indeed, its great popularity, realistic descriptions, archetypal situations, detailed local coloring, and overall race-consciousness may well evoke Huckleberry Finn as the novel's North American equivalent.' (Book jacket)

'A deftly told, deeply moving, and hardscrabble novel that features several stirring passages about life in the streets, the melting-pot realities of the modern city, and the oft-unstable mind of the crowd, The Slum will captivate anyone who might
appreciate a more poetic, less political take on the nineteenth-century naturalism of Crane or Dreiser.’
-Waterstones

Finding a paper copy of this novel may not be so easy, so plan ahead if you want to read the physical book!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/949601.The_Slum

The meeting will take place at Cabana Covent Garden up on Central St Giles. So join us for some delicious samba style as we delve into this classic of Brazilian literature!

N.B. We will be charging an event fee of £3, non-refundable, to discourage no-shows and contribute to the running costs of the group. Please only sign up if you intend to come along as space is limited to make for an effective discussion!