Breakfast Book Club: "Flesh" by David Szalay

For this book club, we will change things up with a novel: "Flesh" by David Szalay. Here is a summary from Goodreads:

"Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, István is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined.

A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, Flesh chronicles a man at odds with himself—estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between István and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. “Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it” (NPR), Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity."

We will meet earlier than usual to secure a table at a hot spot cafe: "Cafe Pascal". I look forward to seeing you then.

P.S., If you were keen to attend but were unable to get a spot, please consider running a duplicate book club event for breakfast/brunch/lunch or dinner. Or you are even welcome to pick your own book. Feel free to get in touch with me (Melissa) to discuss how you can run your own event within this Meetup group. :)