We are an informal group.  Join us whether you have finished reading the book or just want to enjoy our lively conversation.  We usually meet at Barnes and Noble book store on Kingston Pike in the cafe area - on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm.

Call or e-mail Peggy Littmann 776-1013, plittmann@comcast.net to RSVP for more information.

This month's selection is Butterflies in November by Olafdottir

Next month: A Man Called Ove by Backman

Butterflies in November

Review By Clea Simon, Boston Globe Correspondent  December 23, 2014 www.bostonglobe.com

On an island, there’s only so far you can go before you find yourself back where you started. That’s one of the themes circulating through Icelandic author Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s quirky and enchanting novel, “Butterflies in November.”

Like her island nation, Ólafsdóttir’s unnamed protagonist is, in a word, insular but seemingly quite content in her self-sufficiency. A 33-year-old woman with a facility for languages, she works as a proofreader and translator but is particularly tone deaf to the people closest to her. “I never get to know anything about you,” her husband complains as he tells her he’s leaving her for another woman. “You’re like a closed book.”

Her own lover broke up with her earlier that day, citing a similar frustrating distance. As if to prove them right, in her interior monologue the narrator admits to a certain relief. “Two men have given me my marching orders today . . . I feel like a prisoner who has helped a cellmate escape by lending him my back.”

Her husband’s grievances, however, focus on a particular lack. Even before he reveals that he is soon to have a baby with his new lover, the narrator knows what to expect. “It was bound to reach this point, the baby issue . . . I wasn’t made to be a mother, to bring up new humans, I haven’t the faintest clue about children, nor the skills required to rear them.” What she doesn’t know is that her best friend is about to challenge not only this self-assessment but also her orderly life.