Pageturners meets on Wednesday 11th April at 5.30pm to discuss The Cage by Lloyd Jones. Two mysterious strangers appear at a hotel in a small country town.  Where have they come from? Who are they? What catastrophe are they fleeing?  The townspeople want answers, but the strangers are unable to speak of their trauma. And before long, wary hospitality shifts to suspicion and fear, and the care of the men slides into appalling cruelty.  Lloyd Jones’s fable-like novel The Cage is a profound and unsettling novel about humanity and dignity and the ease with which we’re able to justify brutality.

Lloyd Jones has written novels, short stories and a memoir. He won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novel Mister Pip. His other books include Hand Me Down World and A History of Silence. Lloyd lives in Wellington, NZ. For more information and reviews go to the Pageturners Blog.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is the story of a quirky yet lonely woman whose social misunderstandings and deeply ingrained routines could be changed forever—if she can bear to confront the secrets she has avoided all her life. But if she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

This is the book for discussion for the March Pageturners meeting to be held on 14 March from 5.30pm. Please RSVP on Eventbrite.com.au

Never Judge A Book by its Movie!

Classics Day Book Club meets next at Orange City Library on Thursday 18 April at 12.30pm to chat about Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York. It was later translated by its Russian-native author into Russian. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, middle-aged literature professor Humbert Humbert, who is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze. His private nickname for Dolores is Lolita. After its publication, Lolita attained a classic status, becoming one of the best-known and most controversial examples of 20th century literature. The name “Lolita” has entered pop culture to describe a sexually precocious girl. The novel was adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne. It has also been adapted several times for stage and has been the subject of two operas, two ballets, and an acclaimed but failed Broadway musical. Lolita is included on Time’s list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It is fourth on the Modern Library’s 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century. It also made the World Library’s list of one of The 100 Best Books of All Time.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Classics Evening Book Club meets on Thursday 18 April at 5.30pm to talk about All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque. It tells the story of six German soldiers who volunteered to fight in World War I, and it chronicles their demise intellectually, spiritually, and physically. The novel is told from the perspective of one incredibly observant young soldier, Paul Bäumer, who exposes details of life on the Western Front – from gas attacks, to fatal illnesses, to rat infestations. Best known for its portrayal of the horrors of trench warfare, All Quiet on the Western Front explores the necessity and purpose of war. More than one million copies of All Quiet on the Western Front were sold in Germany when it was published in its entirety in 1929. The Nazis, who were rising in power, hated its grim portrayal of war. They publicly burned it. Gangs of Nazis descended upon the theatre where the 1930 film premiered in Berlin. In 1938, Remarque lost his German citizenship. He eventually moved to Switzerland and, later, to the United States. Over time the novel was translated into twenty languages, provoking a range of emotions and discussions on war around the world.