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PW Book Club: Anat Talshir’s “About the Night”

About the Night by Anat Talshir
About the Night by Anat Talshir

Hello everyone.

I hope you enjoyed this month’s book club read. I know I did.

This month’s read, “About the Night,” had us diving into a love affair between an Arab and a Jew right before the wall in Jerusalem went up in 1947.  Two newlywed lovers are forced to find ways to secretly see each other, before it is inevitable that they have no choice but to try and move on with their lives behind their respective side of the wall.

Years go by.  One continues to hold a flame for the other, the other decides to move on with life, thinking the other will do the same.  For both, they share a special kind of love.  This is the type of love people search for their entire lives.  It’s the kind of love that carries one through to the end of their life, no matter how long they have to live severed from the other.


Questions.

  1. What did you think of the book?  Did you like it?
  2.  Did you think this story was realistic?  If you found the love of your life and were separated from them, would you wait for them or would you move forward with your life?
  3. Have you met the love of your life?  Could you relate to that special love these two shared?
  4. Did the historical aspect of this story help you to relate to the issues facing Israel today?  Did you get a sense of the racism and cultural differences between Arabs and Jews?  Did it help you to understand the struggles facing an Arab and a Jew falling in love?
  5. Lila is a woman with great strength.  When life handed her lemons, she did the best she could do with them to keep on shining, even when they were tossed at her door.  In her heartbreak, we see Lila rising above to help people, even if it wasn’t the popular opinion of the people in her community.  Did you find her character an inspiration?
  6. Did you think Elias made the right decision after he was beaten by the police?  Could you do the same?
  7. What were some of your favorite quotes in the book?
  8. Would you recommend this book to others?




Feel free to leave your answers below, on GoodReads (see the link to the PW book club on the right), or on the PW Facebook page.

PW’s May Kindle First Book Club Selection

About the Night by Anat Talshir
About the Night by Anat Talshir

The May Amazon Kindle First selection is Anat Talshir’s “About the Night.” Here is a description of the book.

On a hot summer day in 1947, on a grandstand overlooking Jerusalem, Elias and Lila fall deeply, irrevocably in love.

Tragically, they come from two different worlds. Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. A growing conflict between their cultures casts a heavy shadow over the region and their burgeoning relationship. Between them lie not only a wall of stone and barbed wire but also the bitter enmity of two nations at war.

Told in the voice of Elias as he looks back upon the long years of his life, About the Night is a timely story of how hope can nourish us, loss can devastate us, and love can carry us beyond the boundaries that hold human beings apart.

For Amazon Prime members, you can get the book now for FREE a month before it is released to the general public.  For those not Amazon Prime members, you can pick up a copy of the book on June 1, 2016.  We’ll be discussing the book on July 15, 2016.

For those who would like to join the discussion, sign up in the PW Book Club email box to the right.  Details will be sent to you as the date draws nearer.

For those who would like to join our next book club discussion, Roger Pulvers’ “Star Sand” will be discussed on June 15, 2016 to give people, that weren’t able to get an early release copy through Amazon’s Kindle First, time to read the book.  Also, if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, the book is a free Kindle Unlimited book.  The Kindle price is $5.99, paperback is $9.91.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them either in the comment section below or on the Facebook page.  Looking forward to hearing from you!