Venue: Online
Date: Wednesday, 28th October 2020
Time: 18:00-19:30

In this session of the Dialogue Society Book Group, we will explore The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka on Wednesday, 28th October 2020 at 6pm.

Publisher's synopsis of The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka:

Between the first and second world wars a group of young, non-English-speaking Japanese women travelled by boat to America. They were picture brides, clutching photos of husbands-to-be whom they had yet to meet. Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heart-breaking story in this spellbinding and poetic account of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land.

Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is the author of the novel When the Emperor Was Divine, and a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. Her second novel, The Buddha in the Attic, was nominated for the 2011 National Book Award and the winner of the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction 2012. She lives in New York City.

About the Dialogue Society Book Group

The Dialogue Society Book Group explores the capacity of books to provide windows into different cultural and intercultural worlds. We will be choosing a series of quality novels to read and then to discuss together at relaxed, sociable gatherings at the Dialogue Society. Participants are welcome to suggest books for future sessions.

Participants will need to find a copy of the book chosen for each meeting and will need to read it prior to the meeting.

We will have a conversation about the book and our responses to it. Discussion may cover:

• the quality of the storytelling
• the authenticity and accuracy with which a historical/cultural situation is portrayed
• our personal responses to it

You do not need to be an expert on literature or anything else to join in. The group should be enjoyable for anyone who enjoys a good book and likes discovering new ones.

Prospective books for future sessions (NB we are open to suggestions)

• Independent People, Halldor Laxness
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
• The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Of Men and Mice, John Steinbeck
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie
• The Rest of the Robots, Isaac Asimov
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain