Book Club Discussion Questions
For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Hakawatis and A Thousand and One Nights and our BookBrowse Review of The Hakawati.
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About This Guide
The introduction, questions, and suggestions for further reading that follow are
intended to enhance your group's conversation about
The Hakawati, an
astonishingly inventive, wonderfully exuberant novel that takes us from the
shimmering dunes of ancient Egypt to the war-torn streets of
twenty-first-century Lebanon.
About This Book
In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand
vigil at his father's deathbed. The city is a shell of the Beirut Osama
remembers, but he and his friends and family take solace in the things that have
always sustained them: gossip, laughter, and, above all, stories.
Osama's grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching
storiesof his arrival in Lebanon, an orphan of the Turkish wars, and of how he
earned the name al-Kharrat, the fibsterare interwoven with classic tales of the
Middle East, stunningly reimagined.
Reader's Guide
- The novel opens with the tale of an emir and his wife who have twelve
daughters and seek the aid of their slave, Fatima the Egyptian, to help them
have a son. This family tale runs parallel, for much of the book, to the
story of Osama and his family. What links, if any, do you see between these
major plotlines?
- When Osama returns to his ruined former home in Beirut, he hasn't lived
there for twenty-six years. He feels out of place and alienated. How has the
war changed life for his family? Do any of the ensuing events, the family
and friends he sees, or the memories called up by his visit, help to create
a renewed sense of belonging for him, or does his sense of alienation
continue throughout?
- Fatima tells Khayal that his desire for Jawad can only be fulfilled if
his stories are seductive enough: "Please . . . favor us with your
seduction. We sit here, parched earth awaiting its promised thunderstorm.
Quench our thirst, we beg you" [p. 21]. What are some other instances of how
stories are shown to be both seductive and life-giving?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.