A Scarcity of Condors

Juleón "Jude" Tholet has survival in his DNA. His father, Cleon, lived through imprisonment and torture during Pinochet's military coup in Chile. His mother, Penny, risked everything to gain her husband's freedom and flee the country with their newborn son. But as a closeted gay teenager growing up in Vancouver, Jude is targeted by a neighborhood bully called El Cóndor, culminating in a vicious hate crime that forces the Tholets to flee their country again.

Jude cautiously rebuilds his life in Seattle, becoming an accomplished pianist, but his wings have been clipped and he cannot seem to soar in his relationships. Only family remains a constant source of strength and joy, until a DNA test reveals something that shocks all the Tholets: Jude is not their child.

Stunned by the test results, the Tholets must dig into their painful past, re-examine their lives in 1973 Santiago and the events surrounding Jude's birth story. It’s a tale rooted in South America’s Operation Condor. It spreads through Pinochet’s terrifying regime of detention camps, torture, disappeared civilians and stolen children. The journey forces Penny Tholet to confront the gaps in her memory while Cleon must relive an ordeal he’s long kept hidden away in a secret world. The tale ends with Jude digging through his genetic code in a quest to find his biological parents. Are they alive? Or are they among Los Desaparecidos—the Disappeared Ones?

Suanne Laqueur’s third book in the Venery series explores the desperate acts of love made in times of war, and the many ways family can be defined.

Book club questions for A Scarcity of Condors by Suanne Laqueur

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

“This will be a saga, not a tale.” Laqueur’s novels are known to cross genres. For those that indulge in neatly categorizing a novel under one label, how would you classify Condors? Dramatic historical fiction? Family saga? Romance? Contemporary fiction? Literary fiction? LGBT?

“The history of mankind is like one big love story.” Discuss how as young, closeted gay men, Jude and Feno suffer dire consequences within the Vancouver ex-pat community, and how those consequences shape their adult lives. How even accepted by his family, Jude is slow to come out in college and his experience being the victim of a hate crime affects his decision to track down his biological family.

Discuss Cleon and Penny’s lifetime love, mature love surviving unspeakable horrors, enduring the ebbs and flows of passion. How they opened their home in Chile to Ysidro and Tatan. How they raised their children with a strong sense of family identity, only to have their bond tested when they learn Jude is not theirs.

Tej is not, as Jude admits readily, his type. Are they kindred spirits? Where do their experiences as refugees and gay men overlap and where do they diverge? What does each man learn from the relationship? What does each learn from the other?

The story is anchored by the historical events surrounding the 1973 coup of Chile, focusing on the events and aftermath of Pinochet’s reign of terror, the tales of harrowing escape from the country, and the fate of Los Desaparecidos – the Disappeared Ones. Were you at all aware of this time in world history? What was it like to read Cleon’s story of imprisonment, torture and his ultimate means to survive?

Discuss the way the human mind copes with severe trauma in the course of the novel.

The novel contains three POVs, alternating between Jude and Penny in the present and Cleon in the past. Did you think this technique worked for the subject matter? Was it effective storytelling or too confusing? Was there a POV you wish had been included?

We’ve all seen the commercials, perhaps entertained the idea of tracing our ancestry. But what if you discover a secret? Does it change anything? Some things? Everything? Gauge Jude’s initial reaction to the first DNA test that shows odd results, and his reaction to the second test where it’s clear he is not his parents’ child. How would you act or feel in his situation? Or if you were in Penny and Cleon’s?

Discuss the themes of “traditional” and “non-traditional” family units, and how “family is so much more than blood.”

The Tholets and Lark-Pendas make a conscious choice to combine their families and make the journey back to Chile together. Did you find the introduction of this additional family unit overwhelming? Or did it bring a sense of closure?

What do you think happened to Penny and Cleon’s baby? Based on what you know, what is the story you can believe in your heart? Would you have preferred a “Hollywood” resolution, or was it more realistic for the Tholets just to have to accept what they could believe?

A Scarcity of Condors Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the A Scarcity of Condors discussion questions