The Afternoon Book Club is open to everyon e and all are welcome! We meet in the community meeting room and tea and c ookies are provided. We will discuss the book for an hour\, followed by ha lf an hour of tea and social time. \;
\nThe \;library has copies< /a> \;on a first-come-first-served basis.
\nYou can purchase you r own copy in person at \;Gather Bookshop \;or \;Book Mount ain. Mention the Squamish Library book club to get 15% off your purcha se!
\n\nUkraine\, 2022. Nastia and her sister\, Solimaya\, are entangled in the booming bridal industry\, getting paid to entertain Western men who've come to Ukraine on "Romance Tours" t o find their dream woman. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who's t ried\, and failed\, to breed specimens from the region's dwindling snail p opulation in her mobile lab. Nastia's obsession with finding her absent mo ther--a flamboyant protester who disappeared after years of public opposit ion to the romance tours--leads her to embark on the journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles along with three angry women\, a truckful of kid napped bachelors\, and Lefty\, a rare snail with one last shot at perpetua ting his species. This journey\, and these dreams\, come to a screeching h alt as Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious and achingly raw metafict ional spiral\, Endling brilliantly balances the comedic stakes set in moti on by the plot while drawing on Reva's personal experiences as a Ukrainian expat\, forced to witness the hostilities from afar while tracking her fa mily's delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and real life combine on the page\, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What is it like to leave behind one's home and possessions? Conversely\, what is it l ike to stay and continue with the mundanities of life and work under milit ary occupation? For those of us witnessing from overseas: how does our sen se of reality change? Can normalcy and security be restored\, or have they always been an illusion? Endling is a tour de force from an author on the cutting edge of fiction\, telling a story of love\, loss\, humour\, and d evastation that only she could tell.
\n\nRegistration required. Register online using the Register button\, or you can phone th e library at 604-892-3110. \;
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