Wellington City Book Club

For our December book, we are reading Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris.

Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – push the makeshift barriers aside.

When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.

Priscilla Morris is the daughter of a Yugoslav mother and a Cornish father. She grew up in London, spending summers in Sarajevo, and studied at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, where she gained her PhD in Creative Writing. Black Butterflies is her debut novel.
If you are coming to the Meet Up, we welcome recommendations for our next book. Come prepared to describe your choice. We like books of short to medium length that will not be too much of a challenge to read in the month or so allotted!

We also welcome anyone who wants to bring books along that they have finished with and are happy to pass on to other readers. However if there is no uptake on any of your books, please be prepared to take them home again as we have no storage facilities.

It is REALLY IMPORTANT that you please RSVP and CANCEL if your plans change as we have to manage the space we have booked at the venue. If RSVPs are closed, it means we have reached maximum numbers.

For our February book, we are reading “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel.

This acclaimed historical novel is the first of the trilogy that brought Mantel to world recognition, won the Man Booker prize and spawned many related TV series.

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

We have a book exchange at our Meet Ups. Members are welcome to bring along any book that they have finished with and would like to pass on. However please be prepared to take any books home with you that don't get adopted as we have no storage facilities! But on the plus side, you might pick up that book you have been meaning to read...

If you are coming to the Meet Up, we welcome recommendations for our next book. Come prepared to describe your choice. We like books of short to medium length that will not be too much of a challenge to read in the month or so allotted!

It is important that you please RSVP and cancel if your plans change. If RSVPs are closed, it means we have reached maximum numbers.