Book Club

We meet from 6:30-7:30pm on the third Tuesday of each month (in term time) to discuss a piece of recently translated literature. New members are always welcome and may attend as and when it suits. Admission is free and we meet online. The books are available at good bookshops and public libraries in Ireland.

'Silver' and 'Gold' Friends of the Centre receive an advance copy of our book club choices in the post each month: find out more about this here. Our book choices for Hilary Term 2025 will be posted here at the end of November.

Tuesday
15 October 2024
6:30-7:30pm

Kairos
by Jenny Erpenbeck,
translated from
the German by
Michael Hofmann

Greek Lessons
by Han Kang,
translated from
the Korean by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won

Kinderland
by Liliana Corobca,
translated from
the Romanian (Moldova) by Monica Cure

Book your place here

2024
book club

The books we have read already this year are:

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior
translated from the Portuguese (Brazil) by Johnny Lorenz
The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa
translated from the Portuguese (Angola) by Daniel Hahn
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga
translated from the French (Rwanda) by Mark Polizzotti
Things I Didn't Throw Out by Marcin Wicha
translated from the Polish by Marta Dziurosz

2023
book club

First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami
translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Abigail by Magda Szabó
translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix
My Pen is the Wing of the Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women
translated from Pashto and Dari by various translators
The Leash and the Ball by Rodaan Al Galidi
translated from the Dutch by Jonathan Reeder
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Em by Kim Thúy
translated from the French by Sheila Fischman
Standing Heavy by GauZ'
translated from the French by Frank Wynne

2022
book club

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnović
translated from the Slovene by Olivia Hellewell
Waiting for the Waters to Rise by Maryse Condé
translated from the French by Richard Philcox
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter
translated from the French by Frank Wynne
Jasmine Days by Benyāmin
translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib
The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman

2021
book club

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee (watch the recording here)
Storm Birds by Einar Kárason
translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates
The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan
translated from the Russian (Armenia) by Lisa C. Hayden
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis
The Perfect Nine: the Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 
translated from the Gikuyu by the author
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
translated from the Farsi by Anonymous

2020
book club

s

Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
translated from French (Congo) by Helen Stevenson
Resistance by Julián Fuks
translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Daniel Hahn
Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
translated from German by Susan Bernofsky
The Dregs of the Day by Máirtín Ó Cadhain*
translated from Irish by Alan Titley
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi
translated from French by Tina Kover
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
The Doll by Ismail Kadare
translated from Albanian by John Hodgson

*Watch a recording of our book club's interview with Alan Titley about his translation of The Dregs of the Day here

2019
book club

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Among the Lost by Emiliano Monge
translated from Spanish (Mexico) by Frank Wynne
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
translated from Dutch (Belgium) by David McKay
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
translated from Finnish by David Hackston
The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutanida
Small Country by Gaël Faye
translated from French (Burundi) by Sarah Ardizzone
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
translated from Arabic (Oman) by Marilyn Booth
Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
translated from Arabic (Syria) by Leri Price
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
translated from Italian by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre
At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong
translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell

2018
book club

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
translated from Danish by Misha Hoekstra
The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenström
translated from Afrikaans by J.M. Coetzee
Affections by Rodrigo Hasbun
translated from Spanish (Bolivia) by Sophie Hughes
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov
translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield
In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González
translated from Spanish (Colombia) by Frank Wynne
Beijing Comrades by Bei Tong
translated from Chinese by Scott E. Meyers
The Impostor by Javier Cercas
translated from Spanish by Frank Wynne
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima
translated from Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt
Petite Fleur by Iosi Havilio
translated from Spanish (Argentina) by Lorna Scott Fox
The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge
translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman

2017
book club

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman
translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
The Evenings by Gerard Reve
translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett
K by Bernardo Kucinski
translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Sue Branford
Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
translated from German by Susan Bernofsky
Fish Have No Feet by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
translated from Spanish (Argentina) by Megan McDowell
A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa
translated from Portuguese (Angola) by Daniel Hahn
Ghachar Gochar by Vivek Shanbhag
translated from Kannada by Srinath Perur
The House with the Stained-Glass Window by Zanna Sloniowska
translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The Queue by Basma Abdel Azizm
translated from Arabic (Egypt) by Elisabeth Jaquette

2016
book club