Thursday 6 November 2014

New Irish Times book club launched

The Irish Times has launched a new book club. A book will be chosen each month and over the course of the month a stream of material that will enrich the reading experience will be published. This will include a review of the book, along with the reviewer’s suggestions for themes to explore and questions to reflect on; an article by the author, explaining the inspiration for their book and addressing its themes; a quiz, testing your knowledge of the author or the theme of the work; an author interview; and archive material, such as reviews of previous works. These articles will all be open to comments from readers, to encourage discussion around the book. The book club will climax with a podcast, in which the author will discuss his book with three readers, followed by an online discussion forum, in which every book club member will have the opportunity to pose their own question.

John Boyne's new book A History of Loneliness has been chosen as the book club’s book for November. It tells the story of abuse in the Catholic Church seen through the eyes of a good priest. An article by John Boyne himself will be published in The Irish Times this week , in which he opens up about his own experience of abuse at the hands of priests. They will also publish a reflection by a priest on the theme of loneliness in the priesthood. On a lighter note, the weekly book quiz will be devoted for one week to the works of John Boyne and for another to the theme of priests in literature.

To join the bookclub see http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-book-club

No comments: