Every second Thursday of the month, join us for our monthly online discussion for significant conversations with fellow bibliophiles 🥵
Drop by in-store to pick up the book or buy online HERE.
This book club is free for our members - if you'd like to receive The Common Press book of the month delivered to your door each month, explore our membership tiers here.
7:30PM-8:30PM
Upcoming dates:
12th June - In Transit - Brigit Brophy
10th July - Females - Andrea Long Chu
About the book:
"Was I, perhaps, castrato/a? Was the truth behind my oblivion that I had no sex?"At the airport, Pat – an Anglo-Irish character of undetermined gender at the heart of In Transit – is called to a heroic quest. Adrift within the confines of the airport’s physical space and time zones, they undergo a journey of self-discovery that embraces tangents, digressions, and undecidability. As supersonic Concordes soar in the skies outside, inside the airport Pat is uprooted: they savour a trendy cappuccino, walk through magazine stalls, engross themselves in the operatic melodies at the airline lounge.
They hop on a baggage conveyor leading to an underground feminist movement, engage in a lively trivia game show and witness the sparks of a socialist revolution. After they become a character in an erotic thriller and detective novel, Pat encounters death, and emerges reborn—all while navigating sudden shifts in gender due to the onset of ‘sexual amnesia’. Brophy’s experimental non-binary 1969 anti-novel was decades ahead of its time. At once a refusal to be identified, and irreverent celebration of identity's undoing.
This book club is hosted by one of our amazing booksellers, Blake!
Blake is an MA student studying on the History of the Book course over at the School of Advanced Study, with a specialty in rare books and modernist publishing histories. Her favourite authors are Samuel R Delany, Ann Quin and Claire Louise Bennett; if you want to make her really excited, ask her about her collection of copies of Ulysses. Blake also started London's own trans climbing group, T-Climbing, so when she's not reading she's mostly up a wall (or on the dancefloor).