About us
A monthly reading group dedicated to literature translated into English.
Each selection is chosen around a shared theme – political, cultural, historial, or simply imaginative – with the aim of showing what the world is thinking.
Many of the books we discuss sit alongside the kinds of titles recognised by prizes such as the International Booker, though the group isn't limited to contemporary writing — we also look at translated classics and older oddities.
This group is a complement to other book groups in Oxford; the intention here is simply a different style of conversation. Our meetings are structured around the book itself, using prepared questions and prompts to help guide the conversation (should they be helpful).
You're welcome to join even if you haven't finished the book, but please be aware that we will go into detail and, naturally, will totally "spoil" the book.
Upcoming events
1
Chinatown by Thuận, trans. Nguyễn An Lý
Gulp Fiction, Unit 28, 29 Covered Market,, Oxford, GB“[An] astonishing work of sharp wit and profound tragedy that refuses to be flattened into a single representation.” — Lamorna Ash, Times Literary Supplement
The metro shudders to a halt – an unattended bag has been found, and terrorism is suspected. For the narrator, a young Vietnamese woman teaching English in the Parisian suburbs, time stops. Her son falls asleep on her shoulder and a long interior monologue begins, looking back over her life thus far. From her constrained childhood in post-communist Hanoi, to a long period of study in Leningrad during the Gorbachev period, she tries to understand everything that has brought her to this point.
Translated from the Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý, whose translation won the 2023 National Translation Award. We'll be reading the Tilted Axis edition (£9.99) – there's a US edition from New Directions with the same translation if you already have it.
9 attendees
Past events
11
