Venue: Online
Date: Thursday, 10th June 2021
Time: 18:00-19:30

In this session of the Dialogue Society Book Group, we will explore The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami on Thursday, Thursday, 10th June 2021 at 18:00.

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset. A couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's. A woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden. An insomniac wife wakes up in a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. The Elephant Vanishes is a dizzying short story collection that displays Murakami's genius for uncovering the surreal in the everyday, the extraordinary within the ordinary.

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)

• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
• When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
• The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie
• The Rest of the Robots, Isaac Asimov
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain