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The Consulate General of Switzerland is honoured to host the May edition of the European Book Club in Vancouver.
The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Charlotte Schallié, Professor and Chair at the Department for Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria.

The Book | The Pachinko Parlour

The days are beginning to draw in. The sky is dark by seven in the evening. I lie on the floor and gaze out of the window. Women’s calves, men’s shoes, heels trodden down by the weight of bodies borne for too long.

It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring ten-year-old Mieko, in an apartment in an abandoned hotel, and lying on the floor at her grandparents: daydreaming, playing Tetris and listening to the sounds from the street above. The heat rises; the days slip by.

The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along with thousands of others, and haven’t been back since. When they first arrived in Japan, they opened Shiny, a pachinko parlour. Shiny is still open, drawing people in with its bright, flashing lights and promises of good fortune. And as Mieko and Claire gradually bond, a tender relationship growing, Mieko’s determination to visit the pachinko parlour builds. (Synopsis by Daunt Book Publishing)

The Author | Elisa Shua Dusapin

"The Pachinko Parlour" is Elisa Shua Dusapin's second novel and is longlisted for The National Book Critics Circle Awards for Barrios Books in Translation Prize. Her debut novel, "Winter in Sokcho", won the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Elisa Shua Dusapin grew up in France, South Korea and finally Switzerland, where she studied literature and still resides today.