Week 1

Community Agreement & Introduction 

Pre-reading Questions:

• What were your first impressions of the book covers?

Introduction Summary:

• We are introduced by a vivid and heartbreaking scene of the ongoing genocide. The passages dive into the nuance of language and what's lost in translation: familiarity, joy, lineage, power, and so much more.

Discussion Questions:

• Is there anything you would like to see added to the Community Agreement? 

• Omar opens the book with the quote “Sooner or later they will leave our country, just as many people throughout history left many countries. The railways, ships, hospitals, factories and schools will be ours and we’ll speak their language without either a sense of guilt or a sense of gratitude. Once again we shall be as we were – ordinary people – and if we are lies we shall be lies of our own making.” – Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration of the North 

  • Why did you think he started with this imagery?