Book Club Mannheim
Reading List & Meetings
Buchliste & Treffen
📖 Our reading list will alternate between English and German books – following a 2 English / 1 German rhythm.
📖 We’ll read both contemporary literature and classics across all genres. The literary level will be medium to demanding, including award-winning titles.
📖 Of course, it’s completely fine if you’d like to participate only in the German or only in the English book discussions – join in whatever way suits you best.
📖 Gelesen wird abwechselnd auf Englisch und Deutsch – nach dem Prinzip 2 englische Bücher, 1 deutsches Buch.
📖 Ob zeitgenössische Literatur oder Klassiker, alle Genres sind willkommen. Der literarische Anspruch sollte dabei mittel bis gehoben sein – gerne auch mal preisgekrönte Bücher.
📖 Natürlich ist es völlig in Ordnung, wenn du nur an den deutschen oder nur an den englischen Büchern teilnehmen möchtest – du entscheidest, wie viel du mitmachen willst.
June 14th, 2026 • 4 PM
Claire Lombardo • The Most Fun We Ever Had
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Four grown daughters, two seemingly perfect parents - and a family secret that changes everything. The Most Fun We Ever Had is a warm, witty, and deeply perceptive novel about love, loyalty, and the cracks beneath the surface. A story about what shapes us - and how well we really know the people closest to us.
Cover © Weidenfeld & Nicolson
July 5th, 2026 • 4 PM
Toni Morrison • Beloved
ICONIC PULITZER PRIZE WINNING NOVEL
NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Sethe, born into slavery, escapes to Ohio but cannot escape her past. Eighteen years later, she is still haunted by memories of Sweet Home and the death of her baby daughter, whose grave bears a single word: Beloved.
Blending history, memory, and haunting suspense, this powerful novel explores the lasting trauma of slavery and the struggle for freedom beyond physical escape.
Cover © Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
August 2nd, 2026 • 4 PM
Benedict Wells • Hard Land (Deutsch)
DEUTSCHER JUGENDLITERATURPREIS 2022
Missouri, 1985: Der 15-jährige Sam arbeitet in einem alten Kino und erlebt einen Sommer, der sein Leben verändert. Er findet Freunde, verliebt sich und entdeckt seine Heimatstadt neu.
Doch ein Ereignis zwingt ihn, schnell erwachsen zu werden – und macht diesen Sommer unvergesslich.
Cover: © Diogenes Verlag
September 6th, 2026 • 4 PM
T.C. Boyle • Blue Skies
From bestselling author T. C. Boyle, Blue Skies is a darkly satirical novel set in a climate-ravaged America.
It follows Cat, a social media influencer whose obsession with a pet snake triggers a chain of chaotic events, while her family struggles to adapt to a world shaped by extreme weather, environmental collapse, and everyday survival.
Blending humor, tragedy, and sharp social commentary, the novel paints an unsettling yet compelling portrait of modern life in the face of climate change - and raises urgent questions about humanity’s future on a rapidly changing planet.
Cover © Norton & Company
October 4th, 2026 • 4 PM
Kazuo Ishiguro • Never Let Me Go
- ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
- FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR
- SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
- TIME MAGAZINE INCLUDED THE NOVEL IN ITS '100 BEST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NOVELS PUBLISHED SINCE 1923—THE BEGINNING OF TIME'
A haunting dystopian novel that follows Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy as they grow up in a seemingly ordinary boarding school with a hidden purpose. As they slowly uncover the truth about their lives and futures, the story explores love, memory, and what it means to be human in a deeply unsettling world.
Cover © Faber And Faber Ltd.
November 1st, 2026 • 4 PM
Halloween Double Feature Book 1
Shirley Jackson • The Haunting of Hill House
Let's get spooked! Even if we're a day late - Shirley Jackson will give us a real scare this year! We'll be honoring the Queen of Horror with two of her most famous short novels.
The Haunting of Hill House is a classic gothic horror novel about four strangers who gather at the mysterious Hill House to investigate paranormal activity, only to discover that the house itself may have a terrifying influence over them. Blending psychological tension, supernatural horror, and an eerie atmosphere, the novel is widely regarded as one of the greatest haunted house stories ever written.
Cover © Blackstone Audio, Inc.
November 1st, 2026 • 4 PM
Halloween Double Feature Book 2
Shirley Jackson • We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a beloved gothic novel about the peculiar Merricat and her deeply isolated, possibly murderous family, blending dark neurosis, macabre humor and an eerie atmosphere surrounding a haunting family secret.
Cover © Blackstone Audio, Inc.
December 6th, 2026 • 4 PM
Eva Menasse • Dunkelblum (Deutsch)
Dunkelblum erzählt von einer österreichischen Kleinstadt, deren Bewohner seit Jahrzehnten ein schreckliches Verbrechen verschweigen. Im Spätsommer 1989 geraten die verdrängten Erinnerungen plötzlich wieder an die Oberfläche: Ein rätselhafter Fremder taucht auf, ein Skelett wird entdeckt und eine junge Frau verschwindet. Mit schwarzem Humor, Spannung und viel Atmosphäre zeichnet Eva Menasse ein eindringliches Panorama über Schuld, Verdrängung und die Narben der Vergangenheit.
Cover © btb Verlag
Past Meetings • Vergangene Treffen
Meeting #3 - May 3 2026
Zsömle ist weg
László Krasznahorkai
Meeting #2 - March 28 2026
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore
