Women in Translation Book Club Melbourne 2023 Books

We're moving to Substack

We’re moving to Substack :) Please subscribe to receive updates (you can subscribe here). You’ll need to separately RSVP for the events you’d like to attend.

We’ve come to the halfway point of this year — we’ve read and discussed books by Tove Jansson, Clarice Lispector, Banana Yoshimoto and Annie Ernaux.

Below are the remaining books for 2023. If you’re interested in attending please RSVP. You can contact me at womenintranslationmelb@gmail.com.

The upcoming books for 2023 include:

Book: ‘Apple and Knife’ by Intan Paramadith (published 2018)
When: Saturday 29 July at 2pm
Where: Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre (251 Faraday St, Carlton)

A deeply, brilliantly macabre, visceral collection which pulls very few punches.
- BBC

Smouldering with black comedy and flickering into moments of unexpected victory. The author throws us into the cauldron of contemporary Indonesia.
- Sydney Morning Herald

Inspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife is an unsettling ride that swerves into the supernatural to explore the dangers and power of occupying a female body in today’s world.

These stories set in the Indonesian everyday – in corporate boardrooms, in shanty towns, on dangdut stages – reveal a soupy otherworld stewing just beneath the surface. This is subversive feminist horror at its best, where men and women alike are arbiters of fear, and where revenge is sometimes sweetest when delivered from the grave.

Book: ‘The Door’ by Magda Szabó (published 1987)
When: Saturday 26 August 19 2pm
Where: Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre (251 Faraday St, Carlton)

Improbably, you lose your heart and head to [The Door], which somehow cuts to the quick of everything that matters and does so in a voice which is, at the same time, materially straightforward and intensely hypnotic.
- Financial Times

One of Hungary’s most important twentieth-century writers.
- New York Times

A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend. The housekeeper's reputation is one built on dependable efficiency, though she is something of an oddity. Stubborn, foul-mouthed and with a flagrant disregard for her employer's opinions she may even be crazy. She allows no-one to set foot inside her house; she masks herself with a veil and is equally guarded about her personal life. And yet Emerence is revered as much as she is feared. As the story progresses her energy and passion to help becomes clear, extinguishing any doubts arising out of her bizarre behaviour.

A stylishly told tale which recounts a strange relationship built up over 20 years between a writer and her housekeeper. After an unpromising and caustic start benign feelings develop and ultimately the writer benefits from what becomes an inseparable relationship. Simultaneously we learn Emerence's tragic past which is revealed in snapshots throughout the book.

Book: ‘Almond’ by Won-pyung Sohn (published 2017)
When: Saturday 30 September 30 2pm
Where: Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre (251 Faraday St, Carlton)

Winner of Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction and the Jeju 4.3 Peace Literary Award.

Intense and moving...a phenomenal book that deserves a wide audience among readers.
— Wall Street Journal (‘Stories that you can take anywhere’ pick).

In her debut novel, film director and screenwriter Sohn Won-pyung (with the assistance of translator Sandy Joosun Lee) has created a tender exploration of adolescence…This is one of those books that deftly straddles the line between young adult and adult fiction; it has such a gentle heart that readers of all ages will recognize and sympathize with the characters' struggles and celebrate when they ultimately triumph.
— Salon (‘Best and Boldest’ pick)

Yunjae was born with a brain condition called Alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger.

Then on Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school, and they develop a surprising bond.

A poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.

Book: ‘The Bridge of Beyond’ by Simone Schwarz-Bart (published 1972)
When: Saturday October 28 2pm
Where: Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre (251 Faraday St, Carlton)

There’s magic, madness, glory, tenderness, above all abundant hope.
- Financial Times

The book’s gift of life is so generous, and its imagery so scintillant in the sunlight of love, that we believe every word.
- The New Yorker

This is an intoxicating tale of love and wonder, mothers and daughters, spiritual values and the grim legacy of slavery on the French Antillean island of Guadeloupe. Here long-suffering Telumee tells her life story and tells us about the proud line of Lougandor women she continues to draw strength from. Time flows unevenly during the long hot blue days as the madness of the island swirls around the villages, and Telumee, raised in the shelter of wide skirts, must learn how to navigate the adversities of a peasant community, the ecstasies of love, and domestic realities while arriving at her own precious happiness.

A masterpiece of Caribbean literature, The Bridge of Beyond relates the triumph of a generous and hopeful spirit, while offering a gorgeously lush, imaginative depiction of the flora, landscape, and customs of Guadeloupe.

All are welcome to join the Women in Translation book club, for one book or for all.