Portland Public Library hosts Friday Night Book Club

Held the last Friday of each month

5:30-7:30pm in the Rines Auditorium

Next up: Friday, May 30th for “An Unnecessary Woman” by Rabih Alameddine

Portland, Maine - Portland Public Library hosts the Friday Night Book Club on Friday, May 30th at 5:30pm.  Friday Night Book Club is for those interested in reading and discussing fiction written within the last twenty years. The group meets on the final Friday of the month at 5:30 p.m. in Rines Auditorium with discussions led by library staff members.  Friday Night Book Club will be a social event where readers will have a chance to network and socialize before the discussion begins.  Refreshments will be provided.  This month the club will discuss “An Unnecessary Woman” by Rabih Alameddine on May 30th at 5:30pm in the Rines Auditorium. 

About the book

One of the Middle East’s most celebrated voices, Rabih Alameddine follows his international bestseller, The Hakawati, with an enchanting story of a book-loving, obsessive, seventy-two-year-old “unnecessary” woman.

Aaliya Saleh lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, childless, and divorced, Aaliya is her family’s “unnecessary appendage.” Every year, she translates a new favorite book into Arabic, then stows it away. The thirty-seven books that Aaliya has translated over her lifetime have never been read—by anyone.

In this breathtaking portrait of a reclusive woman’s late-life crisis, readers follow Aaliya’s digressive mind as it ricochets across visions of past and present Beirut. Colorful musings on literature, philosophy, and art are invaded by memories of the Lebanese Civil War and Aaliya’s own volatile past. As she tries to overcome her aging body and spontaneous emotional upwellings, Aaliya is faced with an unthinkable disaster that threatens to shatter the little life she has left.

A love letter to literature and its power to define who we are, the prodigiously gifted Rabih Alameddine has given us a nuanced rendering of one woman's life in the Middle East.

New members are always welcome! Please email burrows@portland.lib.me.us or call the Readers' Advisory desk at 871-1700, ext. 705, if you have any questions about the group. This program is free but registration is required.