Book Club 2020
The Italian Book Club in English is returning!
If you dream of Italy and are passionate about its culture, come and join us.
Starting in April, we will read and discuss in English, 3 books located in Italy and written by Italian authors.
The Italian Book Club is a ‘taste of Italy’ under all points of view: from the story and the location, to the characters and to the culture including of course, the food, so at every meeting you will have the chance to try a traditional recipe inspired by the book.
Cost: $40 for three meetings of one and a half hours
Where: Puriri Lounge, St. Ninians, 5 Puriri Street, Riccarton.
Time: 7pm-8.30pm
Facilitator: Roberto Dazzaro
Enrolments close on 10th April 2020. . Please note that if there are not a minimum of 8 participants, the Italian Book Club will not go ahead.
Payment can be made online to the following bank account - 11 7800 0054463 11, Please include the following information when you complete your payment.
Particulars: Book Club
Code:
Reference: (Your Name)
Amount: $40.00
Alternatively, please send a cheque to The Treasurer, Dante Society, 21 Cairnbrae Drive, Prebbleton 7604. Please include your name and Book Club reference on the back.
Copies of the books can be obtained at CCC Libraries.
Just click on the books below and you will be redirected to the library link.
If you dream of Italy and are passionate about its culture, come and join us.
Starting in April, we will read and discuss in English, 3 books located in Italy and written by Italian authors.
The Italian Book Club is a ‘taste of Italy’ under all points of view: from the story and the location, to the characters and to the culture including of course, the food, so at every meeting you will have the chance to try a traditional recipe inspired by the book.
Cost: $40 for three meetings of one and a half hours
Where: Puriri Lounge, St. Ninians, 5 Puriri Street, Riccarton.
Time: 7pm-8.30pm
Facilitator: Roberto Dazzaro
Enrolments close on 10th April 2020. . Please note that if there are not a minimum of 8 participants, the Italian Book Club will not go ahead.
Payment can be made online to the following bank account - 11 7800 0054463 11, Please include the following information when you complete your payment.
Particulars: Book Club
Code:
Reference: (Your Name)
Amount: $40.00
Alternatively, please send a cheque to The Treasurer, Dante Society, 21 Cairnbrae Drive, Prebbleton 7604. Please include your name and Book Club reference on the back.
Copies of the books can be obtained at CCC Libraries.
Just click on the books below and you will be redirected to the library link.
Wednesday, 29th May
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco 1945, Lake Como. Mussolini and his mistress are captured by local partisans and shot in a summary execution. The precise circumstances of Il Duce's death remain shrouded in confusion and controversy. 1992, Milan. Colonna, a depressed writer picking up hack work, is offered a fee he can't refuse to ghost-write a memoir. His subject: a fledgling newspaper, which happens to be financed by a powerful media magnate. As Colonna gets to know the team of journalists, he learns the paranoid theories of Braggadocio who is convinced that Mussolini's corpse was a body-double and part of a wider Fascist plot. It's the scoop he desperately needs. The evidence? He's working on it. Colonna is sceptical. But when a body is found, stabbed to death in a back alley and the paper is shut down, even he is jolted out of his complacency. |
Wednesday, 31st July
Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini A mother's love knows no limit Libya, 2010. As Gaddafi clings desperately to power, and chaos and violence flood the streets of Tripoli, Farid and his mother, Jamila, face two stark choices: flee to the border and risk capture by mercenaries, or trek to the coast and chance their luck on the hazardous crossing to Sicily. But hunkering down in a trafficker's battered old boat, the vastness of the Mediterranean and their journey begins to dawn. Sicily, 2010. Vito wanders the desolate beaches recalling his mother's stories of her idyllic childhood in Libya. Forced to leave the country years earlier, Angelina has never forgotten- nor forgiven the forces that tore her from her childhood love, a young Arab boy whose fate was very different from her own. And as she yearns for her past life in Africa, Jamila dreams of building a future for herself and Farid in Europe. Moving back and forth between the continents, this deeply moving portrait focuses on two families and one stretch of water, and in terse, lyrical language, captures perfectly the dark, uncertain quality of our times. |
Wednesday 25th September
Shadows on the Lake by Giovanni Cocco and Amneris Magelia A new atmospheric Italian mystery novel set in Lake Como, introducing the clever and captivating Inspector Stefania Valenti. During the construction of a new road to the Swiss border in the mountains above Lake Como, the remains of a young man are unearthed on the powerful Cappelletti family's property. On the case is Stefania Valenti, forty-five, divorced with a young daughter, and a brilliant, determined police inspector. Her investigation takes her back to World War II and deep into the history of the region, a place that during the war attracted smugglers, deserters, secret agents, and fleeing Jews. Steeped in the beautiful atmosphere of Northern Italy, Valenti's investigation brings to light a family's secret, a tragic romance, and reveals a fascinating piece of Italian history. |