May 7, 2014 from 7:00-8:00 PM EST

Join the Committee on African Studies for a discussion of Cutting for
Stone by Abraham Varghese.

- Please note this change of book selection. Join the Committee on African Studies for a discussion about this novel which moves from India to Ethiopia to
an inner-city hospital in New York through generations. This session will feature
a presentation by Professor Wendy Laura Belcher, who will be joining us from
Princeton University's Department of Comparative Literature! Register today!

March 31, 2014
7:00 - 8:00pm

Join the Harvard Global Health Institute and the South Asia Institute for a discussion of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.”

... Read more about Behind the Beautiful Forevers: March 2014

January 27, 2014

Join the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for a discussion of Autumn Quail by Naguib Mahfouz with CMES Arabic Preceptor and scholar Sami Alkyam.

Legendary Egyptian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Naguib Mahfouz writes about shifting experiences of authority and identity following the Egyptian revolution of 1952. Part of a three-part novella cycle exploring the historic military coup that resulted in the overthrow of Egypt's constitutional monarchy, this short work of fiction offers a rich historical lens through...

Join the Asia Center for a discussion of Yan Lianke's Dream of Ding Village, featuring discussant Professor Karen Thornber, Comparative Literatures and East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Officially censored upon its Chinese publication, and the subject of a bitter lawsuit between author and publisher, Dream of Ding Village is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke's most important novel to date. Set in a poor village in Henan province, it is a deeply moving and beautifully written account of a blood-selling ring in contemporary China.... Read more about Dream of Ding Village: February 2014