DESTINATION: INDIA
Sunday, September 13th, 10AM to 11:30AM (We'll have tea + coffee!)
FREE, but RSVP is helpful!
Postcard Bookshop | 81 SE Yamhill St, PDX 97214
Parking lot located in back, off of Water Ave
Our Word Travel Book Club meets every-other-month to read books from a common country. We pick the destination and you choose what book to read! When we gather, we’ll all be introduced to a broader survey of a country’s writing, and have the chance to explore connections and themes across books.
DESTINATION: INDIA
As we head back to Asia for another round of our book club travels, I wanted to make the leap to a new corner of this diverse and geographically expansive region. India may be familiar terrain for a lot of American readers. With a history of British colonialism, Indian authors both at home and in the diaspora publish widely in English. Think Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, and many more. Like our recent readings around Nigeria, you could spend years exploring Indian authors and never have to reach for a translated title.
AND YET ... think of the stories you would miss! Just in the last several years, two authors writing in Indian languages have won the International Booker Prize (Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand [Hindi] and Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp [Kannada]). India is linguistically rich, with 22 state-recognized languages, 120 "major" languages, and more than 1500 other languages. At a time when the government there is pushing a culturally-flattened agenda of a Hindu nationalist state, these voices are even more important. On our shelves right now, you can find books brought into English from Kannada, Tamil, Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, or Telugu. And we'll continue to seek out more translated titles to offer right alongside some English Indian heavy-hitters.
I compile lists of recommendations each month — just follow the links below to see what we have on our shelves at the shop, or explore our longer list on Bookshop.org. But remember: you can read ANY book from our chosen country, so pick up whatever catches your attention.
Looking for suggestions of what to read? We've curated collections of great Italian books on our website, or on our Bookshop.org page.