In May the Translations Book Club reads Australian Stephanie Smee’s translation of Pascal Janovjak’s spellbinding novel, The Rome Zoo.

The Rome Zoo: a place born of fantasy and driven by a nation’s aspirations. It has witnessed – and reflected in its tarnished mirror – the great follies of the twentieth century. Now, in an ongoing battle that has seen it survive world wars and epidemics, the zoo must once again reinvent itself, and assert its relevance in the Eternal City.

Caught up in these machinations is a cast of characters worthy of this baroque backdrop: a man desperate to find meaning in his own life, a woman tasked with halting the zoo’s decline and a rare animal, the last of its species, who bewitches the world.

Drifting between past and present, The Rome Zoo weaves together these and many other stories, forming a colourful and evocative tapestry of life at this strange place. It is both a love story and a poignant juxtaposition of the human need to classify, to subdue, with the untameable nature of our dramas and anxieties.

Spellbinding and disturbing, precise and dreamy, this award-winning novel, translated by Stephanie Smee, is unlike any other.

At Night All Blood is Black is a hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness.

New members are most welcome but spaces are limited. The event link below will be activated from 9am on Wednesday 20 April and spaces will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Feel free to send us an email if you have any questions.