This Magnificent Dappled Sea

In the early 1990s, nine-year-old Luca Taviano lives in a small North Italian village where a stubborn cold is subsequently diagnosed as a virulent case of leukemia. His only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant. After an exhaustive search, a match turns up three thousand miles away in the form of a most unlikely donor: Joseph Neiman, a rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, who is suffering from a debilitating crisis of faith. Luca's grandmother, Letizia, is surprised to learn of her grandson's Ashkenazi DNA profile, but Luca's young nurse, Nina, is intrigued by the unlikely match and researches his family history, risking her career and racing against time to help save him. Through the course of her research she uncovers terrible secrets from World War II—secrets that reveal how a Catholic child could have Jewish genes.

THIS MAGNIFICENT DAPPLED SEA was inspired by a true story, and David Biro, a physician who is himself the recipient of a successful bone marrow transplant, explores how two strangers—generations and oceans apart—have a chance to save each other. Can inheritance be transcended by accidents of love? That is the question at the heart of a novel that challenges the idea of identity and celebrates the ties that bind us all together.

Book club questions for This Magnificent Dappled Sea by David Biro

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

The title, This Magnificent Dappled Sea, is used in the book to describe the physical appearance of bone marrow—do you think it has a broader resonance as well?

Both Luca and the Rabbi suffer from illness: Luca from leukemia and Joseph from depression. How do their experiences converge and diverge?

Nina is shown to ponder sbagli or mistakes that happen in life. Some sbagli are our own doing; others, we have no control over. What are some examples in the book of such mistakes? Why does Nina think they are so important to acknowledge and how do they affect her life?

Giovanni’s leg wound is a horrifying physical manifestation of his guilt—one that is self-inflicted and constantly festering. Is his guilt justified? Is he a hero or a coward or just an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances?

Other characters in the book harbor wounds (e.g. Sarah and Samuel). How do their wounds influence their actions?

At the blood drive for Emily Nussbaum, Joseph contemplates the tendency for people to identify with various groups—ethnic, religious, economic, etc.— and how this affirms one’s sense of self and community, but can also limit and even preclude interaction with other groups. What are the benefits and drawbacks of such “memberships?”

Luca has an imaginary friend he calls Orlando, who rescues people in need, and whom he hopes will rescue him too. “Bemagination”—the line between belief and imagination--is an important part of the human existence, whether it’s an imaginary friend or a reimagined past. How important are the stories we tell ourselves in order to live?

When Luca discovers his grandparents and Nina concealed the fact that his father was Jewish, he responds with anger and isolation. Do you think these concealments qualify as emotional protection or deception? What would you do if you were Luca? Or if Luca were your charge?

In medicine, homing is the phenomenon where cells migrate to the organ of origin. In the case of a bone marrow transplant, those migrating cells belong either to a family member or, as in Luca’s case, a complete stranger. When Joseph’s foreign cells are injected into Luca’s body, they must find their way to his marrow and make it their new home. When Luca says that he feels the Rabbi inside of him, is he speaking literally or metaphorically? What other people and things does Luca feel “inside him”? Is the border between inside and outside more porous than we imagine?

Homing is arguably as much a fact of biology as it is of personhood. Everyone yearns to find a home where they feel comfortable. What are the fruits and failures of Luca’s—and Nina’s and Joseph’s--search? What defines a home?

Just as the transplant saves Luca physically, it saves Joseph spiritually. Does it also re-inform the way they live their lives? Do life-and-death experiences permanently change and define a person? Can you ever put such an experience behind you?

Do you think Luca is happy at the end of the book?

This Magnificent Dappled Sea Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the This Magnificent Dappled Sea discussion questions

“David Biro has written a glorious novel about connections over time, through war and displacement, to life affirming twists of fate that change the course of the lives of Luca Taviano, an Italian boy and Joseph Neiman, a rabbi. Grief and love are intertwined in the experience of Italian Jews and this beautiful novel tells that story weaving in and out of time as secrets are revealed and redemption is lost and found. Bravo!”

—Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Shoemaker's Wife

This recommended reading and discussion guide are shared and sponsored in partnership with David Biro.