Event: ENSFR reading group, January meeting

This year’s first short fiction reading group meeting will take place (via Zoom) on Monday 26th January at 5pm (UK time). Below, you can find information on how to join the online meeting room.

During the meeting, we will be discussing Paul’s reading suggestion: the short story “Butterflies” by Samanta Schweblin. It is a very short story at just a page long. You can access the short story, as well as a five-minute video of the reading of the story, from the links below:

Samanta Schweblin: Butterflies – Bookanista

Reading of Butterflies Video

Our conversation will focus on the following key questions that Paul has selected:

Q1) To what extent does the brevity of the story heighten the protagonist’s emotional intensity at the ending?

Q2) What symbolic role do the butterflies play within the narrative?

Q3) In what ways does the story construct or critique masculinity?

Q4) How is parenthood depicted, and what tensions or expectations surround it in the story?

Q5) How is Nature represented, and what thematic significance does it carry?

Q6) Does the story align more closely with gothic fiction, ecological writing, or family drama—or does it deliberately blend multiple genres? What might this hybridity suggest about the expressive power and intensity of the short story form?

Join the zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86043265746?pwd=900rbjzbcMrfkwKts7nKjf1Bdzljtq.1