Reading Groups

Three Novels (Offshore, Human Voices, The Beginning of Spring) by Penelope Fitzgerald The group celebrates the centenary of Penelope Fitzgerald, whose remarkable late-flowering career saw her emerge from obscurity to be recognized as a writer of subtlety, originality and brilliance. Totaling less than 450 pages, the three novels in this collection give a sense of her scrupulous artistry, ranging from the autobiographical, Booker-winning Offshore, through the tragi-comedy of corporate life evoked in Human Voices, to the dazzling historical reconstruction of The Beginning of Spring. The Green Road by Anne Enright Hanna Dan, Constance and Emmet return to the west coast of Ireland for a final family Christmas in the home their mother is about to sell. As the feast turns to near painful comedy, a last, desparate act from Rosaleen – a woman who doesn’t quite know how to love her children – forces them to confront the weight of family ties and the road that brought them home.