Post Type Archives: VBC Events

Published in 1984 and set in the Prague Spring of 1968, Kundera’s novel is a work that “wears many hats” (which, as you will discover, is quite literally an important motif in the book!). On the one hand, it is a brilliant philosophical novel that explores the metaphysical tension between “lightness” and “weight” in our […]

I’ve been thinking about this novel for a long time, ever since I first fell under its spell decades ago, not long after it was published in 1997. I sensed then that there was something quintessentially “American” about the dramatic rise and fall of the protagonist, Seymour “the Swede” Levov. Even the title of the […]

Flaubert’s Parrot is one of those works that’s difficult to describe: it’s part homage to the soaring literary brilliance of the French novelist Gustave Flaubert, part meditation on aging and loss, and part reflection on what it means to love someone so much and yet somehow know that person so little. You put all these […]

The Baron in the Trees is the captivating story of a young nobleman in the 18th century who decides – just as the title declares – to live among the leaves and branches, suspended above ground. As I wrote in my Luzzi’s List: 5 Favorite Reads of 2021: this mix of fantasy, fable, sci fi, […]

Matrix is the story of the fascinating Marie de France, a medieval nun and brilliant poet whose mysterious Lais continue to enchant readers some eight centuries after they were written. Groff’s novel tells the dramatic story of Marie’s life, from her expulsion from the royal court of Eleanor of Aquitane in France to her life […]