2025_09 Resum trobada Club de Lectura en anglès. "The Warmth of Other Suns"

El passat 5 de setembre algunes persones del club de lectura en anglès es varen trobar per comentar The Warmth of Other Suns d’Isabel Wilkerson. La Lluïsa Pardàs, membre del club ens n’ha fet arribar aquest resum: 

 

"On September 5 our English book club discussed The Warmth of Other Suns by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson. This non-fiction book explores, through a blend of history and personal storytelling, the Great Migration that took place between 1915 and 1970—when about six million African Americans left the Southern United States for the Midwest, Northeast, and West. 

 

One of the main highlights was the narrative structure, which shifts between the life stories of three individual migrants—Ida Mae Gladney, George Starling, and Robert Foster. We noted that Wilkerson balances individual journeys with historical context, making history feel alive and helping us see both the huge scale of the migration and the personal struggles and triumphs behind it. 

 

A big question that came up was why this story had gone untold for so long. Several members suggested trauma played a role. For many who lived it, revisiting the painful realities of the Jim Crow South—segregation, discrimination, violence—was too heavy, so silence became a form of protection. In Wilkerson’s words, “Some lived in tight-lipped and cheerful denial. Others simply had no desire to relive what they had already left.” 

 

We also spent time talking about the reasons that made people stay or leave. The brutal restrictions of Jim Crow laws made daily life unbearable for many, and leaving required great courage to step into an uncertain future. However, for others “running away meant Jim Crow had won,” so they chose instead to stand their ground and stay. 

 

We all appreciated how Wilkerson uses personal stories to tell a much larger history. By grounding the Great Migration in primary sources (lived experiences), she gives us not just facts but human voices."

                                                     Lluïsa Pardàs 

 

2025_06 Trobada Club de Lectura en anglès. Comenten "The Wren, the Wren"

El club de lectura en anglès s'ha trobat i han parlat llargament sobre "The Wren, the Wren". Una de les coordinadores i participants, l'Annabel ens ha passat el següent:

At our book club session last Friday, June 13, "we discussed *The Wren, The Wren* by Anne Enright, a powerful intergenerational novel that explores love, trauma, and legacy. 

Many of us admitted that we initially struggled with the first section, which follows Nell, a 20-something woman who has moved to Dublin in an attempt to live independently. Immersed in a sad bubble, her story unfolds in a stream-of-consciousness style that captures her pain, self-harm, and destructive relationship with Felim. 

As readers, we felt helpless witnessing her silent demise. Later, we meet her mother, Carmel, who is controlling, emotionally withdrawn, and deeply scarred by her father’s abandonment. Phil McDaragh, Carmel’s father and a celebrated poet, chose art and narcissism over his dying wife and children. 

Despite the pain, the novel moves towards hope. The symbolic *wren*, once linked to sacrifice and violence in Irish folklore, eventually becomes a sign of freedom, healing, and the promise of a brighter future."

Des d'aquest raconet us animem a participar en aquestes tertúlies tant interessants i absolutament en anglès!

 

2025_03 Trobada del club de lectura en anglès. The Bee Keeper of Aleppo

On Friday, January 17th 2025 the Book Club in English met at the Sant Gregori library to discuss The Bee Keeper of Aleppo by Christie Lefteri. 

The story alternates between the past and the present. The present timeline takes place in 2016 England, where Syrian refugees Nuri and his wife, Afra, are staying at a bed and breakfast while attempting to claim asylum. The past timeline chronicles the years before, when civil war and the death of their child leads the couple to flee Syria and make the long and perilous cross-country journey to England where Mustafa, Nuri’s cousin, is waiting for them. Over many years in Syria, Mustafa taught Nuri the art and skill of bee keeping and together they created a thriving business. In England, Mustafa has created another bee-keeping business and is waiting for Nuri to join him and thereby rebuild their lives. By switching frequently between these two timelines, certain information is intentionally withheld from the reader to create suspense and to portray the disorienting nature of the trauma the characters experience. Using this technique, the author aims to portray the experiences of the refugees from a perspective that tries to be very personal. In writing the story, the author calls on her experience as a volunteer in a refugee centre in Athens and also on her personal experience as a refugee from Cyprus as a child with her parents. While the story and plot were generally well received, there were several negative criticisms of the novel including the unsophisticated quality of the writing and the author’s use of an unusual technique of ending some chapters and beginning others in mid-sentence, which everyone agreed was distracting and somewhat clumsy. The author also chose to narrate the story from the perspective of the male protagonist, which was not always convincing. The theme of the story generated some interesting insights during our discussion including reflections on the rôle of social media in conflict situations and the dehumanising and depersonalising nature of conflict and of bureaucratic processes such as asylum procedures, which the author conveyed well. If you are learning English and would like to practice by reading and discussing a novel in English, please consider joining us.

Ressenya de Sally Jefferies

Ja ho sabeu!!! Us esperem!