Reading Club: The Human Stain

The SNFCC Reading Club, coordinated by the author Panos Tsiros, continues in November. 

On Monday, November 30, bibliophiles renew their monthly appointment, this time online, from 18:30 to 20:30, to discuss the book they read during the month that just passed. The group of readers will once again have the opportunity to come together and use the book of the month as a starting point to share experiences, emotions and ideas, as well as to create new friendships and exchange opinions.

November Book of the Month: The Human Stain 

The multi-award winning and prolific master of the narrative Philip Roth (1933-2018), with his distinctive self-referential style, is considered one of the most emblematic figures of contemporary American literature. He had a long academic career as a Creative Writing professor at the University of Iowa and Princeton University, as well as teaching comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania for a number of years. His impressive resume includes several major distinctions, most notably the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1998), and the Man Booker International Prize (2011) for his achievement in fiction. The Human Stain (2000), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, is one of the most popular novels of the reading public worldwide, and was made into a film by Academy Award favorite director and screenwriter Robert Benton (2003). The book completes Roth’s famous trilogy, which also comprises American Pastoral and I Married a Communist. It is no coincidence that Coleman Silk, the protagonist of The Human Stain, identifies three tragic authors as his favorites: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. 

Silk, a classical studies professor at the Athena College in New England, is an Afro-American who has created a false identity for himself as a Jew, and lives a new present, in defiance of the imperatives of society and his contemporary era. He is involved with a much younger woman, persecuted by her jealous ex-husband, and ends up being accused of racist behaviour. Is he innocent or guilty? How will he deal with this accusation that puts his career at risk? Will he ultimately decide to conceal the truth and maintain his position?

Panos Tsiros was born in Athens in 1970. He studied at the School of Philosophy of the University of Ioannina, and went on to pursue postgraduate studies in Philosophy in England, completing his thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus. He has worked in secondary education for several years. His first collection of short stories, Ferte mou to kefali tis Marias Kensora (Bring me the head of Maria Kensora), was published in 2007 by Gavriilidis Publications, followed, in 2013, by another short story collection, entitled Den ein’ etsi? (Isn’t it so?), published by Mikri Arktos. His third collection, I monaksia ton skilon (The loneliness of dogs) was released by Nefeli Publishing in 2019. He has collaborated with several magazines, and a number of his short stories have been translated into French.

Monday 30/11 | 18.30-20.30
 

For adults
Up to 40 participants
Participation by online pre-registration

Pre-registration starts on Tuesday 03/11 at 12.00

Coordinator: Panos Tsiros, author

To take part in the Reading Club, registered participants are required to have read the book of the month. 

November's Reading Club will take place online, through Zoom.