Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Spring/Summer 2025
BookTalk with Harriet Sobol BookTalk introduces readers to a carefully chosen, provocative selection of novels for reading and informal discussion, considering the author’s writing techniques and the character’s personal journeys. Readings include translations of books from other countries and cultures in the search for fictions that illuminate the lives and understanding of those from all across the globe. HARRIET LANGSAM SOBOL is a teacher and author of books for children and young adults. She has written essays for the New York Times and other publications, and directs writing workshops. She has led this popular book discussion class for many years.
Abigail (1970) by Magda Szabó, English translation in 2020 by Len Rix This suspenseful novel is Szabó's most popular and best known work. Set in Hungary during World War II, the fiction follows the headstrong teenage protagonist Gina, who was sent away to a grim religious boarding school by her widowed father, an army general who was called away suddenly on a mission. The titular Abigail is a sculpture in the school garden with the legendary power to aid students who drop handwritten entreaties into her urn. Deeply unhappy with the school's rules and uniformity and ostracized by her peers, she soon suspects the existence of a real person behind the statue's myth, perhaps one and the same as the town anti-Nazi revolutionary. Gina eventually befriends her classmates and cultivates individuality and dissent in an atmosphere of rules and regulations. Szabó is also the author of the prizewinning novel, The Door (1987). Wednesday, April 23 • 1:00pm-2:30pm • Zoom • Course 13130 • $30
Twist (2025) by Colum McCann This deep, deep-sea mystery is the latest novel by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, and Booker Prize longlisted Irish author. Centered around an Irish writer, working on a magazine assignment about the ocean's fiber optic cables through which most information is exchanged across continents, the Irish boat captain whose crew is assigned to repair them off the coast of South Africa, and his love interest, a glamorous South African actress. Character development through lyrical and thoughtful prose elevates the plot and addresses themes of severed connections, absence and emotional distance, technology, risk, and repair. Wednesday, May 14 • 1:00pm-2:30pm • Zoom • Course 13250 • $30
The Funeral Party (1977) by Ludmila Ulitskaya, English translation in 1999 by Cathy Porter Shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize, this is the first Ulitskaya novel to be published in English. Set in 1991 New York City, Russian émigrés stop by to pay their final respects to Alik, a charismatic artist, slowly dying of a paralytic disease. Their personal histories are revealed through detailed flashbacks that portray experiences of alienation and stoic fatalism. Both funny and sad, this complex character study unfolds at Alik’s deathbed as his friends, caregivers, and former lovers reminisce about their lives in Russia while the Soviet coup attempt unfolds before them on the news. Wednesday, May 14 • 1:00pm-2:30pm • Zoom • Course 13250 • $30
www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org • (914) 723-2325
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