A Book and a Bite

The theme of this book group a simple - incontrovertibly fine books accompanied by slightly more controversial, interpretive food pairings for each selection.

For our first next book we'll be reading Sojourn by the marvellous Indian novelist, essayist, composer, and musician Amit Chaudhuri. He has just published an amazing new novel about Paris called Château Rouge, and it's been a welcome occasion to dip back into the catalogue of a major modern writer.

You're very welcome to join us in the first Book Book and a Bite of the New Year. We will meet monthly, and there is no commitment beyond whichever meeting you decide to attend.

An unnamed man arrives in Berlin as a visiting professor. It is a place fused with Western history and cultural fracture lines. He moves along its streets and pavements; through its department stores, museums and restaurants. He befriends Faqrul, an enigmatic exiled poet, and Birgit, a woman with whom he shares the vagaries of attraction. He tries to understand his white-haired cleaner. Berlin is a riddle-he becomes lost not only in the city but in its legacy.

Sealed off in his own solitude, and as his visiting professorship passes, the narrator awaits transformation and meaning. Ultimately, he starts to understand that the less sure he becomes of his place in the moment, the more he knows his way.