Towards Understanding: A Fiction in Translation Reading Group

For our inaugural translated fiction reading group we’ll be reading one of my favourite books of 2017: Blue Self-Portrait by Noemi Lefebvre.

Breathless and lyrical, this wonderfully entertaining novella fully inhabits the neurotic mind of its narrator. She sits on a plane taking her home to France after an extended stay in Berlin, and obsesses over the details of a needlessly intense relationship with a German-American Pianist. Her thoughts take her through scenes, through fragments of scenes, through nervous reflection and through pointless regret. The prose is graceful and warm, the character deeply lovable and her reflections endlessly funny and endearing.

Our reading groups last for an hour, and consists of a relaxed chat with wine and nibbles. The chat focuses on the set book to begin with, but often amiably strays to include thoughts on other related books.

This one one of two fiction reading groups that run every month in the bookshop. For those who want a more general reading experience, please consider our general fiction reading group which meets on Monday 19th February.