KENT—The House of Books’ monthly book club has selected “Eastbound” by Maylis De Kerangal for its Jan. 17 session. The group will meet at 6 p.m.
“Eastbound” is both an adventure story and a duet of two vibrant inner worlds. De Kerangal offers the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom. Racing toward Vladivostok, young Aliocha, packed onto a Trans-Siberian train with other Russian conscripts, decides to desert. During a midnight smoke in a dark corridor of the train, he encounters an older French woman, Hélène, for whom he feels an uncanny trust.
Complicity quickly grows between them when he urgently asks—through pantomime and basic Russian that Hélène must decipher—for her help in hiding him. They hurry from the filth of his third-class carriage to Hélène’s first-class sleeping car.
Aliocha is now a hunted deserter and Hélène is his accomplice.
The book club is a monthly, ticketed event. To sign up or to contact the House of Books, email bookworms@houseofbooksandfriends.com.
