Book Group
The Sherborn Book Group meets on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 11:00. We meet at the Sherborn Public Library. All are welcome to join the group. Please let us know if you would like to be added to the list of attendees by emailing [email protected] or by calling 508-651-7858. We always welcome new readers.
November Book: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood–where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned–Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor–engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
December Book: Foster by Claire Keegan
In 1981 Ireland, County Wexford, a girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm, while her mother gives birth. She has no notion of when she will return home. In the strangers’ house she finds affection she has not known before, and slowly she begins to blossom in their care. But when a secret is suddenly revealed, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.