The Book of Records

This is a complex work—what was the reading experience like? What did it demand of you as a reader? What are the rewards of reading a novel like this?

How would you categorize this book? Historical fiction? Climate fiction? A philosophical novel of ideas? Something else entirely?

Was Lina a reliable narrator? Did your opinion of her change over the course of the novel?

“Could a person and the memory of that person diverge so far that recollection itself became a kind of betrayal” (p. 50)? How does Madeleine Thien play with the assumed stability and trustworthiness of memory throughout the book?

How did you understand the relationship between the fictional characters of Jupiter, Bento, and Blucher and their historical counterparts Hannah Arendt, Baruch Spinoza, and Du Fu?

What artists, writers, or thinkers working today, and which beliefs, do you think future generations will look back on as people and ideas that have shaped their worlds?

Why do you think Thien made the creative decision to emphasize the liminal quality of the Sea in contrast to the historical sections? How does this mood underscore the (supposed) temporary-ness of this way station and the lives happening within its walls?

How does the experience of exile shape the events of the novel and the characters’ lives? How did this novel challenge your understanding of “home”?

“You’ll never be content if you can’t separate what you want from what really is. This world isn’t what you wish it to be, this world is more than we can begin to imagine, and sometimes I think it’s more than we deserve” (p. 5). Do you agree? Each of these characters struggles in their own way to love a world that has taken much from them, and to make friendship a homeland. Can you relate? What is your refuge?

The book frequently references “making things up” or rewriting texts to fit the needs of a particular speaker—what do you think Thien was saying about history and lived experience here?

“Those old books of yours were right. The stories that last are the ones about voyages, about odysseys and escapes. How could it be otherwise? Stories of return are the ones that survive the journey out” (p. 51). Would you consider The Book of Records an odyssey or “story of return”?

Beyond the intertwining timelines within the story, there is a recurring feeling that history is repeating, both in the book and in the world of us as readers. How is this book in conversation with the past, the present, and the future? How do authors create works of fiction that engage with the world beyond its covers?

“By certainty, did Benji mean truth? Did it come from within or without, from ourselves or the world” (p. 176)? How does the book answer this question? How do you?

How did the experiences of Wui Shin and Bee in Part Two echo those of the characters in Part One? Was Wui Shin a sympathetic character?

What three books would you want to save if you were leaving your home? The “most battered volumes” you have read and loved or those “untouched or barely read” (p. 7)? Would you turn to nonfiction or fiction? Why?

How do you imagine Lina’s life after the last page?

What did the collapsing of the past and present, history and fantasy, childhood and adulthood in the span of even a few paragraphs do for you as a reader? How does the structure of the novel underscore the themes Thien is exploring?

In the book there are both interpersonal betrayals and societal failures. How do each influence the characters’ lives? Is one more destructive than the other?

How is storytelling a defense against “the heartache of an infinite uncertainty” (p. 246)?