Post Type Archives: VBC Events

As the publisher notes, Disgrace is a novel that blurs the distinction between private and public life, as David Lurie’s narrative of “disgrace” becomes intertwined with broader sociopolitical issues in South Africa: At fifty-two, Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire, but lacking in passion. When an affair with a student leaves him jobless, shunned by […]

The publisher’s description captures the haunting world and tension between personal life and political history at the center of this novel: The Door is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary’s Communist authorities. Emerence is a […]

It’s difficult to imagine a more anticipated and decorated book than Intermezzo, which was published in September 2024. The book has gone on to receive such accolades as Instant New York Times Bestseller, Finalist for the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year, and a Best Book of the Year selection by the Washington Post, Guardian, and many others. The intricate […]

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1998 was awarded to the Portuguese author Saramago “who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.” Saramago’s capacity for allegorical and fable-like literary creation is in full effect in his best-known novel, Blindness, as we see in this description from the publisher: A […]

As we see in this description from the publisher, the plot of The Corrections is essentially a family narrative that covers issues ranging from mental illness and aging to the complexities of sibling rivalry and the heartache of failed expectations: After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. […]