Dear walking book clubbers,
I URGE you to read this book, Charlotte by David Foenkinos. It is extraordinary. There aren’t many books that I really want to press into people’s hands and this is one of them.
It is hard to ask people to read a book that is ostensibly so sad - we know from the off that Charlotte is going to be killed by the Nazis (it’s a lightly fictionalised biography of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon) - but the book is so compelling, fascinating, moving and surprisingly life-affirming. Don’t just take my word for it, Kate from The Book Club Review recently posted a couple of times about it - read THIS ONE, for which she even bestows upon me the official title of Book Guru.
Moreover, I’m thrilled that the author David Foenkinos has generously agreed to answer our questions! Please email me anything you’d like to ask David by the end of Monday 20th February, and I will send questions off to him, ready to post the full Q&A the following Monday.
Please scroll down to:
Find details and booking links for our February discussions
Discover more about Charlotte
Get information about March.
Our February Discussions
Charlotte by David Foenkinos translated by Sam Taylor
Sunday 26th February, 11.30-1pm £5-£15
Join us for a walk on Hampstead Heath, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB. Please make sure you’ve read the book!
Monday 27th February, 9.15am
Look out for the written Q&A with David Foenkinos, landing in your inbox this morning. Please email me any questions for him by the end of Monday 20th Feb.
Monday 27th February, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
Join us on Zoom - feel free to show up, even if you’ve not read the book. This conversation is open to anyone who’s interested.
Friday 3rd March, 1.30-2pm
Live Discussion Thread about the book, and also a chance to share what else we’ve all been reading, watching and listening to over February. Look out for the link that will arrive in your inbox just before. (I do realise this is technically not in February, but it is too short a month!)
Buy Charlotte from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Discover More About Charlotte
N.B. No pressure to consume any of the links below - please don’t think of this as homework! The links are only in case you are interested and would like to extend your reading - I promise I won’t quiz you on them at any of our meetups!
Here is a self-portrait of Charlotte Salomon from 1940, three years before she died in Auschwitz. For those of you who would like to discover more about the life and work of this extraordinary artist, there is a wealth of content out there, including:
Katy Hessel interviewed artist Chantal Joffe about Charlotte Salomon on her podcast, The Great Women Artists, which you can listen to HERE. My thanks to Maura for pointing me in this direction.
Did any of you get to see the exhibition of Salomon’s work, Life? or Theatre? at London’s Jewish Museum a few years ago? Please tell me about it if so! It looks like the next opportunity to see her work exhibited like this is at Munich’s Lenbachhaus, from 31 March - 10 September, more info HERE.
HERE is a fascinating hour-long presentation about Salomon’s life and work, by art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen, for the Fritz Ascher Society.
The biopic Charlotte recently came out, with Keira Knightly voicing Salomon. I’m intrigued! It’s available to buy or rent on the usual platforms, including YouTube, where you can watch the trailer, HERE.
If you would like to know a little more about the book Charlotte, rather than the artist Charlotte, here are some more links:
For a short introduction, might I recommend my review of it in the Guardian? I first discovered the book when my editor there emailed to ask if I’d do a short review of this ‘rather special’ book. High praise from an editor whose literary taste is faultless. I read it in one sitting, and you can read my piece on it HERE.
There is also Sara Baume’s much fuller review for The Irish Times, which is especially good at appraising this novel in the context of Foenkinos’ other work. (If you’d like to read some of his other novels, you might like to try The Mystery of Henri Pick and Delicacy.)
Finally, HERE is an interesting interview with David Foenkinos (pictured above) for the Institut Francais, which focusses on adapting books to screen. Don’t forget to send me YOUR questions for OUR own Q&A with him!
March
Akenfield by Ronald Blythe
In this landmark, deeply affecting book, Ronald Blythe captures the words spoken by the people in his Suffolk village in 1967, portraying a now-vanished way of life.
We join around fifty villagers - including "The Survivors" of War, "The Orchard Men", teachers, bell-ringers, the vet, the wheelwright and even the gravedigger - to be transported back to the 1960s, and further back through childhood memories and lore passed down generations. This is a time when children were told to "Drink all you can at school" as there was no running water at home; a time of hand-made nails, and wooden wheels - made from wych-elm, unsplittable thanks to the twist in its growth; a time when a farm hand could join the army and gain a stone, as he was no longer being "worked to death"...
Blythe's fascinating book mines the deep tension between the villagers' respect for tradition and desire for progress, raising enduring questions about the relationship between memory and modernity, nature and human nature, silence and speech.
Discussion dates:
At the Daunt Books Festival: Friday 17th March, 10-11.30am, setting off from Daunt Books Marylebone, 83-84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW.
On the Heath: Sunday 26th March, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £5-15
On Zoom: Monday 27th March, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
Live Discussion Thread: Friday 31st March, 1.30-2pm
Buy Akenfield from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Look out for our February Walker’s Walks coming next week.
Happy reading,
Emily