Reading Club “Literature without Borders” — journeys through books, cultures and imagination

There are trips that start with a ticket. And there are those for which you just need to open a book. The second meeting of the Reading Club “Literature without Borders” will be devoted to the book “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino and a trip to Italy. We invite you on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 17:00. Admission is free.

“Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino is an unusual journey through Italy, which can not always be found on the map. It is a story about cities full of memories, desires, signs and contradictions — beautiful, mysterious, sometimes melancholic. Calvino creates from them not so much an atlas of places as a story about how we look at the world and what role space, memory and imagination play in our lives.

It is a book that invites you to discover new cities, meanings and associations. The Italian journey is non-obvious: instead of a guide, we get a literary map, on which the border between reality and imagination remains fluid.

The Reading Club “Literature without Borders” is a series of meetings for those who want to explore the world through literature. Each meeting will become an expedition to a different country — its history, culture, language and way of telling about reality. It is an opportunity to see the world through the eyes of outstanding writers and to see how much good literature can say about a person.

Together we will reach for the most important works of world literature, but also for books that are less obvious — somewhat forgotten, less present in popular circulation, and extremely valuable and inspiring. Each reading will become an excuse to talk about culture, history, identity and universal experiences that, despite the boundaries that divide us, turn out to be surprisingly close.

The meetings combine the book club formula with workshop elements. There will be time to interpret the text together, exchange thoughts and discover meanings that we often do not perceive when reading alone. We are not looking for one right answer — we believe that the most interesting stories are born from conversation.

Before each meeting, participants will receive information about the selected book so that during the evening together they can embark on another literary journey.

We invite all those who believe that literature can transcend borders — countries, languages and experiences — and lead where we cannot reach by any means of transport.

List of next readings: (order yet to be determined)

1. “Praise of the Shadow” Jun'ichirō Tanizaki or “Book of Tea” Kakuzō Okakura/Japan

2. “Physics of Grief” Georgi Gospodinov, Bulgaria

3. “To Kill the Thrush” Harper Lee or “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck/USA

4. “Returned” or “Paradise” Abdulrazak Gurnah/Tanzania 5. “Fictions” Luis Borges/Argentina or/and “Pedro Paramo” Juan Rulfo/Mexico

The City of Literature Foundation — has been operating in Krakow since 2013. For more than a decade they have been implementing projects in the field of literature, cultural education and social animation, creating a meeting space between creators and cultural recipients. A special place in the activities of the Foundation is occupied by the promotion of reading and popularization of literature. For nine years they have been running a year-round program of literary events in Kraków's chamber bookstores, organizing author meetings, discussions, workshops and educational activities aimed at different groups of audiences.

Date: October 15, 2026 (Thursday),
Time: 17:00
Duration: 90 minutes
Place: Basements of the Cultural Centre Dworek Białoprądnicki, 2 Papiernicza Street, Cracow
Admission is free

Next meeting dates:

12 november

December 10