Second Annual Chancellor's Book Club (April 12, 2022)

Dear Colleagues and Students, 

We have had another rewarding academic year, and it's hard to believe that graduation and commencement are around the corner. I'm delighted to see many student organizations restarting in person activities across the university. 

Last fall, I launched The Chancellor's Book Club as a way for our community to come together and share our thoughts about a thought provoking book. Many of us had a wonderful conversation about last year’s selection, Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun. 

This fall, I again invite our community to join me for another excellent book, When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut. Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature, this book uses a combination of reality and fiction to explore discoveries that “resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining."

The New York Review of Books has called When We Cease to Understand the World "a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction." Going "at a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail," Labatut deploys his incredible imagination to tell stories that “expand our notions of the possible."

I invite you to read this at your leisure and to join me for the Second Annual Chancellor’s Book Club to discuss When We Cease to Understand the World in small groups and chat about this intriguing and acclaimed work early in the fall semester. This will be a great way to enjoy each other's company as we return from our summer respite.

I hope to see you in the fall!

Domenico Grasso
Chancellor