Classics & Contemporary Book Discussion: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Tuesday, March 12, 10:30-11:30am, Adults, Auditorium
Here is the story of The Iliad as we’ve never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles. Given only a few words in Homer’s epic and largely erased by history, she is nonetheless a pivotal figure in the Trojan War. In these pages she comes fully to life: wry, watchful, forging connections among her fellow female prisoners even as she is caught between Greece’s two most powerful warriors. Her story pulls back the veil on the thousands of women who lived behind the scenes of the Greek army camp—concubines, nurses, prostitutes, the women who lay out the dead—as gods and mortals spar, and as a legendary war hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion. Brilliantly written, filled with moments of terror and beauty, The Silence of the Girls gives voice to an extraordinary woman—and makes an ancient story new again. (From the publisher)
Copies of the book are available here. Ebook and audiobook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app.
For those who would like to purchase a copy of The Silence of the Girls, please support our local independent bookstore, The Book Stall at 811 Elm Street in Winnetka.
Read Around the World Book Discussion: Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
Thursday, March 28, 2-3pm, Adults, Auditorium
In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them. (From the publisher)
Find a copy of the book here. Ebook copies are available through Digital Library of Illinois or the Libby app. Audiobook copies are always available through Hoopla.
For those who would like to purchase a copy of Nothing to Envy, please support our local independent bookstore, The Book Stall at 811 Elm Street in Winnetka.
