The Lover by A B Yehoshua.
22nd April 2015, 8pm.
A
husband’s search for his wife’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs.
Casting the personal against the backdrop of the political, this story is not just one of complex family dynamics, but of the complex national dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“Elusive, haunting”—New York Times Book Review
The Children Act by Ian McEwan.
3rd June 2015, 8pm.
Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge, presiding over cases in the family court. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife.
At the same time, she is called on to try an urgent case: for religious reasons, a beautifu
l seventeen-year-old boy, Adam, is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life, and his devout parents share his wishes. Time is running out. Should the secular court overrule sincerely held faith? In the course of reaching a decision Fiona visits Adam in hospital – an encounter which stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. Her judgment has momentous consequences for them both.