Ember in the Ashes (Tahir)

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available. In the meantime, consider using these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for An Ember in the Ashes...then take off on your own:

1. The setting in An Ember in the Ashes is reminiscent of ancient Rome. Talk about the society, particularly it's slavery and the way that practice undermines a civilization's humanity.

2. Does the Sabaa Tahir flesh out her characters fully? Or do some seem undeveloped, overly cruel, even cartoonish perhaps? What kind of character is Elias, for instance, and why does he want to run away? Here is a child of privilege and yet he is unhappy with the way things are. What changes his mind?

3. Tahir uses multiple points of view, including that of the cruel headmistress of the military school. What does it feel like to see from her perpective? Does it change your attitude toward her character?

4. How and why is violence turned against the members of the empire, making them, in a way, victims of their own society.

5. And what about the violence. Does its frequent use in the novel inure you to it (do you become used to it), or are you continually repulsed by the brutality? Is the use of violence gratuitous, perhaps? Or is it purposeful in furthering the plot and building an overarching sense of dread?

6. Comparisons have inevitably been made to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones. What do you think?

7. What is the significance of the book's title?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)