About this Event
Meet and talk with other readers in an informal, loosely structured setting about your impressions, feelings, interpretations, associations and pleasures of reading our chosen book.
Everyone welcome!
Our March Book Club will be reading 'Helen of Nowhere', by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2026).
Purchase of the book from the Jot pop-up shop outside Station South every second Sunday or from www.jotbook.com will secure you a place in the club on a first come first served basis.
About the book:
In the middle of the countryside, a realtor is showing a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. She speaks not only about the home’s many wonderful qualities but about its previous owner, the mystifying Helen, whose presence still seems to suffuse every fixture. Through hearing stories of Helen’s chosen way of living, the man begins to see that his story is not actually over – rather, he is being offered a chance to buy his way into the simple life, close to the land, that’s always been out of reach to him. But as evening fades into black, he will learn that the asking price may be much higher, and stranger, than anticipated. Philosophically and formally adventurous, at once intimate and cosmic in scope, Helen of Nowhere asks: what must we give up in exchange for true happiness?
‘Wildly original… unpredictable and funny…. Is Helen of Nowhere a ghost story? A satire about back-to-the-land philosophies? A comedy about male obsolescence? Or, conversely, a skewering of woke identity politics? Perhaps it’s just a fable about burn-out or the human hunger for love. It could be all of these…. This is fiction that will sharpen your attention to the world, make it more intense. It reminds us that we don’t have to understand or like everything about a book to get something out of it. In fact, allowing ourselves to feel stimulated and perplexed feels like intellectual freedom and an awakening of human potential.’ — Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Times
‘Helen of Nowhere expands one’s sense of how a novel can be written.’
— Sheila Heti
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Station South, 975- 977 Stockport Road, Manchester, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
