The Age of Calamities

Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.

In this bold debut collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In “Let’s Play Dead,” Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn gone, but there’s a tiny problem—she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does. “Choose Your Own Apocalypse” hurls readers back to 1945, where they assume the role of a technician for the Manhattan Project, confronted with labyrinthine paths and harrowing outcomes. And “Inside the House of the Historian” invites us to a dinner party turned murder mystery full of figures like Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. These stories and others entice readers to confront the past, the present, and themselves all at once. Zany and haunting, inviting and brilliant, each poignant tale delves into the surreal and tragicomic nature of the present through the lens of yesterday.

The Age of Calamities is an evocation of life and death on history’s unsteady margins, of how to reckon with the blunt-force trauma of ill-fated times. Fiercely clever and wildly inventive, this debut establishes Senaa Ahmad as a literary force.

These questions were provided by the publisher, Henry Holt & Co.

Book club questions for The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad

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

In “Let’s Play Dead,” Ahmad puts readers directly into the action by using the “we” pronoun throughout. Why do you think she chooses to implicate readers as bystanders to Anne’s many murders?

“The parson was a distant figure, too far to decipher the hunch of his shoulders, the oblique shadow of his face. He could’ve been anyone. Even a Napoleon.” Why do you think that Ahmad chose to include this line at the end of “The Napoleons are Multiplying?” What, if anything, set the Napoleons apart from the parson, or other non-Napoleons?

At the end of the story, the narrator of “The Wolves” says that it was a relief to see the men as monsters again after the full moon. Why do you think this is?

Were you surprised, while reading, when the Klansmen appeared in “Our Lady of Resplendent Misfortune?” Why or why not? What do you think was the significance of their appearance in that scene? How was their presence connected to the themes throughout the rest of the story?

Why do you think Ahmad picked those specific historical figures to bring together in “Inside the House of the Historian?” What dynamics did this collection of figures bring to the story? Have each member of the reading group pick a different historical character. Can you imagine how the story would be different if those people had gathered with the Historian, instead?

What would you say is the force driving the action of the sisters in “It Was Probably a Very Nice Day?” Do you think that they were satisfied, in the final scene of the story?

Unpack the title “Not Everything is Ancient History.” In the context of this story, what do you think it means?

Consider the fan response to the Lizzie Borden films in “The Houseguest”– do you think the fan writings are any less a part of the Lizzie Borden fictional universe than the original films? Do they share the same relationship to the real-life historical figure of Lizzie Borden that the films do?

“Choose Your Own Apocalypse” purportedly allows readers to choose their own path while reading; however, the nature of the pages is such that readers do not actually have a choice. What was the effect of this style? Did the lack of agency feel different, here, than when reading stories that don’t pretend give readers options at the end of every section?

Having considered each story individually, now consider the collection as a whole. What themes tie these stories together? Why do you think these specific stories exist in the same collection, in the order they appear?

The Age of Calamities Book Club Questions PDF

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