Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Age of Orphans:
1. Most readers point to the graphic nature of sex and violence in Khadivi's book. How difficult a read was this for you? Do you feel the brutality adds or detracts to the story? Is it too graphic and sensational? Or is the book's violence necessary to carry the story—and to depict conditions under the Shah's reign?
2. When captured, Reza becomes part of a group of boy soldiers in the Shah's army. What creates the initial bond among the boys? What happens when the Shah pays a visit to their ranks—how does his visit affect the group cohesiveness?
3. How does Reza's capture and mistreatment as a 7-year-old boy explain his later violence toward the Kurds? What are psychological underpinnings that lead to his actions in Kermanshah.
4. The story is told through shifting points of view. Why might the author have chosen to use this narrative technique rather than a single, straightforward narrator? Does the technique work for you?
5. Talk about Reza's marriage to Meena and the couple's relationship to one another.
6. Describe Reza's inner conflict, the increasing difficulty he experiences in denying his heritage.
7. An overarching theme of this book is the destruction of identity and its consequences. What happens when individuals or groups are denied the right to express their ethnic, cultural, or religious backgrounds? Can identities ever be completely wiped out? Can a person recreate a valid identity absent any historical ties to group/family/culture? What constitutes one's identity?
8. Tangential to Questions #7: how important is it for ethnic populations to be assimilated into a larger national culture? Why do national leaders of many (most?) countries prize "ethnic purity"? What is gained....or lost....through assimilation —by the group that assimilates and by the dominant culture?
9. Point to some passages in this work that you find especially lyrical. How are such passages are juxtaposed with the violent sections in the book? Why might Khadivi have used such stylized, poetic writing?
10. This book has particular relevance today, given the use of children as soldiers in conflicts around the world. Have you read other books on the same subject, such as Dave Eggers' What is the What ... or Ismael Beah's A Long Way Gone? If so, how do the books compare with one another? Consider doing some research on the issue of boy soldiers—the prevalence of their conscription and what, if any, efforts exist to prevent their exploitation.
11. The Age of Orphans is part of a planned trilogy. Does this book make you want to read the other books when they're published?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
top of page (summary)