Family by Pa Chin (China)
June 3, 2026
The story of three generations of of the Kao family in 1920s and 30s China – from feudal caste system to revolution.Type your paragraph here.
The Comedians by Graham Greene (Great Britian/Haiti) August 5, 2026
Three men on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt “Papa Doc” and the Toutons Macoute, his sinister police. Brown, the hotelier, Smith the innocent American and Jones , the confidence man- these are the “comedians” of Greene’s title. Hiding behind their actors’ masks they hesitate on the edge of life.
The Gift of a Cow by Premchand (India) December 3, 2025
Economic and social conflict in a north Indian village are brilliantly captured in the story Hori, a poor farmer, and his family’s struggle for survival. Hori does everything he can to fulfill his life’s desire to own a cow, the peasant’s measure of wealth and well being. An engaging introduction to India before independence. Out of print for many years, this translation is regarded as a classic in itself.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) April 1, 2026
This is a classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional eyes of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior in Umuofia in the late 1800s.Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British pollical and religious force.
All sessions meet at 7:00PM in the Parlor at Grace.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan) October 7, 2026
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
The Tale of the Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu (Japan) October 1, 2025
The most famous work of Japanese literature and the world's first novel--written a thousand years ago and one of the enduring classics of world literature. Written centuries before the time of Shakespeare and even Chaucer, The Tale of Genji marks the birth of the novel--and after more than a millennium, this seminal work continues to enchant readers throughout the world. Lady Murasaki Shikibu and her tale's hero, Prince Genji, have had an unmatched influence on Japanese culture. Prince Genji manifests what was to become an image of the ideal Heian era courtier; gentle and passionate. Genji is also a master poet, dancer, musician and painter. The Tale of Genji follows Prince Genji through his many loves and varied passions. This book has influenced not only generations of courtiers and samurai of the distant past, but artists and painters even in modern times--episodes in the tale have been incorporated into the design of kimonos and handicrafts, and the four-line poems called waka which dance throughout this work have earned it a place as a classic text in the study of poetry.
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile) February 4, 2026
One of the most important novels of the 20th century, this is the story of three generations of the Treuba family: the patriarch Esteban ,a volatile proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with connections to the spirit world. When his daughter, Blanca, embarks on a forbidden love affair in defiance of her implacable father, the result was an unexpected gift to Esteban, his granddaughter, Alba, a beautiful and strong willed child who will lead her family and her country into a revolutionary future.