Five Leaves Open Book Group Discusses I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel

Our fiction book group is open to all. Attend every meeting, occasionally or just once a lifetime. All we ask is that you read the book in advance and take part in the discussion. There’s a short introduction by a member of staff or a group regular or someone we know with a special interest in the book in question.

In I’m A Fan a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With an unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal heteronormative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.

Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour – Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.

This book has been longlisted and shortlisted for loads of national prizes!