Date: 27 February 2026 (Friday)
Time: 6:00pm – 10:40pm
Venue: Sheung Wan and Central
Reading of The Lake’s Water is Never Sweet: a novel (L’acqua del lago non è mai dolce) by Giulia Caminito
Presenter: Elizabeth Chung
Venue: To be confirmed
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European Literature Night 2026 marks the third edition of this dynamic literary initiative, organized by the EUNIC Cluster in Hong Kong.
The project invites the public to engage with contemporary European literature through a series of readings and performances taking place in a variety of venues across the Central and Sheung Wan. Transforming the city into a cultural map, the event connects stories, spaces, and communities, bringing literature out of traditional settings and into the urban fabric.
At each location, readings will take place simultaneously in 30-minute intervals, allowing the audience to create their own personalized literary itinerary. The event offers a unique opportunity to discover the richness and diversity of European voices in a fresh, immersive way.
This year, the Italian Cultural Institute will present The Lake’s Water is Never Sweet: a novel (L’acqua del lago non è mai dolce) by Giulia Caminito —
The location for readings of the Italian book by Ms. Elizabeth Chung will be announced soon.
The Lake’s Water is Never Sweet
In the 1990s, Gaia’s family moves from the neglected peripheries of Rome to an idyllic lakeside town twenty miles away, in search of a new life that will lift them out of poverty. Each of them bears their own scars: Gaia’s strong-willed mother is fiercely determined to secure a better future for her children at any cost; her father, a once proud man, now suffers in bitter silence after a devastating accident; her anarchist older brother rebels against the political apathy he sees at home; and her young twin brothers wordlessly bear witness to a family in decay.
When Gaia meets two local girls, Agata and Carlotta, the trio builds a fragile friendship throughout their adolescence based as much on their insecurities and jealousies as it is on their mutual affection. Gaia’s encounters with callous boys and contemptuous teachers convince her that she might always be an outsider—excluded from a privileged life and perhaps even beyond the possibility of happiness. Faced with bullying and betrayals among her peers and immense pressure from her mother to excel, Gaia turns inward and her world becomes increasingly insular. Then tragedy strikes her friend group. As more friends slip away and her family fractures, Gaia vows to make the world pay for all the things it has denied her.
Winner of the Campiello Prize, The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet is an unflinching portrait of a generation, striving to make a place for themselves in a world markedly different from the one their parents promised them. With psychological acuity and stylish prose, Caminito takes us into the volatile, searching mind of a young woman torn between her desire to connect with others and her drive for self-preservation. In a novel that has been acclaimed by readers around the world, Caminito shows how tenderness and fragility often lie just beneath the surface of simmering fury.
About Giulia Caminito
Giulia Caminito’s first novel, The Big A (Giunti, 2016), won the Bagutta Opera Prima Prize, the Berto Prize, and the Brancati Giovani Prize. She is also the author of The Day Will Come (Bompiani, 2019), The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet (Bompiani, 2021), and Amatissime (Giulio Perrone, 2022). The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet won the 2021 Campiello Prize and was a finalist for the Strega Prize. Caminito’s books have been translated in over 20 countries.
About Elizabeth Chung
Ms Elizabeth E. “Lilli” Chung is a PhD Candidate at CUHK researching Hong Kong Literature, focussing on the relationship between community and contemporary literature. Both a critic and creative writer, her works have been published digitally and on paper and can be found in Where Else and The Signal House Edition, amongst others. She is a co-organiser of the Hong Kong-focussed poetry groups Peel Street Poetry and OutLoudHK隨言香港, and a co-founder of the new literary group Flow State留言, which welcomes performances of any literature and aims to highlight original English and Cantonese writings from the city. Online @chungyilei.