Wednesday, April 8, 2026 • 6:30-8:30PM

Staunton Books and Tea is hosting International Book Club: Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos

Doors open at 6:30 pm – stop by early to get your tea brewed; the conversation begins at 7 pm.

Join us for an intimate evening of conversation as the International Book Club discusses Archipelago, a spare, lyrical novel that traces borders – geographical, emotional, and artistic. Set in motion by an unsettling ferry encounter en route to a translation residency on the Dalmatian coast, the novel follows an unnamed narrator through a hazy summer of translation, memory, and desire. A reunion with an old friend, who has written her into his own novel, blurs the boundaries between art and life, leading to a wandering journey across borders and an impulsive return to Greece, and to the uneasy idea of home.

Drawing subtle inspiration from The Odyssey, Archipelago reimagines homecoming through an ecofeminist lens, exploring translation, authorship, femininity, and memory while centering middle age as a moment of transformation rather than resolution.
Natalie Bakopoulos is the author of Scorpionfish and The Green Shore. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The New York Times, and O. Henry Prize Stories. A former Fulbright Fellow in Athens, she is an assistant professor at Wayne State University and a faculty member of Writing Workshops in Greece.

We’re delighted to welcome a special guest for this discussion: Johan Westenburg, the alter ego of Big Pappy Turtleneck of WQSV. Johan will bring his distinctive perspective and curiosity to a conversation ranging across literature, culture, identity, and the shifting stories we tell about ourselves.