10. Abu Ghayeb tells Dalal that there is much to learn from the bees that he keeps, a lesson that she passes along to Adel and Saad. How does this wisdom become particularly profound? How might the bees serve as a metaphor for life in Baghdad?
11. Three of Dalal’s most intimate relationships in the novel are with Ilham the nurse, Saad the hairdresser, and his exciting friend Adel. What does Dalal gain from getting close to each of these people, and what does she lose?
12. Do you think the novel ends on an optimistic note? How, if at all, do you think Dalal will be able to play a role in the reshaping of her home city?
BETOOL KHEDAIRI was born in Baghdad in 1965 to an Iraqi father and a Scottish mother. She received a BA in French literature from the University of Mustansiriya and then traveled between Iraq, Jordan, and the United Kingdom, working in the food industry while writing her first novel, A Sky So Close, published in Arabic in 1999 and published by Pantheon and Anchor in 2001/2002 to wonderful reviews. She currently lives in Amman, Jordan.
ALSO BY BETOOL KHEDAIRI
A Sky So Close
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and unintentional. The author has not tested the fictional recipes in this book, and does not recommend them.
2007 Random House Trade Paperback Edition
English translation copyright © 2005 by Betool Khedairi
Copyright © 2004 by Betool Khedairi
Reading group guide copyright © 2007 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
READER’S CIRCLE and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in Arabic as Ghayib in 2004. This English translation was published by the American University in Cairo Press in 2005.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-636-8
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Khudayri, Batul.
[Ghayib. English]
Absent: a novel / Betool Khedairi; translated by Muhayman Jamil.
p. cm.
Translated from Arabic.
I. Jamil, Muhayman. II. Title.
PJ7842.H685G4813 2007
892.7'37—dc22 2006050439
www.thereaderscircle.com
v1.0
Table of Contents
C OVER P AGE
T ITLE P AGE
D EDICATION
T HANK Y OU
C HAPTER O NE
C HAPTER T WO
C HAPTER T HREE
C HAPTER F OUR
C HAPTER F IVE
C HAPTER S IX
C HAPTER S EVEN
C HAPTER E IGHT
C HAPTER N INE
C HAPTER T EN
C HAPTER E LEVEN
C HAPTER T WELVE
C HAPTER T HIRTEEN
C HAPTER F OURTEEN
C HAPTER F IFTEEN
C HAPTER S IXTEEN
C HAPTER S EVENTEEN
A R EADER’S G UIDE
W HAT’S IN A N AME?
Q UESTIONS FOR D ISCUSSION
A BOUT THE A UTHOR
A LSO BY B ETOOL K HEDAIRI
C OPYRIGHT
Absent: A Novel Page 23