Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Disappeared by Kim Echlin. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. A poet once told Kim Echlin, ‘There really are only people and places’, and she has studied myths from around the world. In The Disappearedin what way does she explore how story-telling transcends language and culture to allow us to connect with one another?
  2. One of the themes of the novel is remembering and memory, about which Kim Echlin has said, ‘Memory recre- ates history, organizes and recreates what time is always destroying. I wanted the language of this story to reflect the multiple understandings we have at every moment. And so, when Anne loses her mother at the age of two, Anne later sees this both as loss but also as a source of her freedom. Similarly, the joy she experiences when she is pregnant, co- exists with her knowledge that their child will inherit his father’s and her dark losses. Then, when the focus is pulled back from the story of two lovers to the more global perspective, the darkness of outer historical events is woven through the lightness of two people struggling to love each other.’ Discuss the ways the author plays out this intention within the fabric of the novel. And what other themes are there?
  3. Would you say Kim Echlin believes that history shapes us, or thatwe shape history?How does this showinThe Disappeared?
  4. Would you say that, generally speaking, there is a recognised genre of literature of testimony? What examples from other writers could you give? Kim Echlin has said that after she returned from a visit to Cambodia she began to read widely a range of testimonies, sourced from various truth commissions, South Africa’s ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ report, Argentina’s ‘Nunca Mas’, as well as the literature and testimony that has come out of World War II, and others. She elaborates: ‘When I re-read the testimony of those who have suffered war or genocide, I noticed that the style of telling is very pared down. People say, “I was tortured”, “I was raped”, “I was thrown in a mass grave and managed to get out”. There is little embellishment, no metaphor, little description beyond the plain recounting of the event. I wanted my style to reflect this kind of language: spare, essential.’ Would you say that she has been successful in this endeavour? And would you agree that some of the greatest love poetry written has a similar, spare essen- tial quality? And in what other artistic mediums might this quality be evident?
  5. Eventually Anne is the sole person in the world who knows Serey’s story. Why does she decide to tell it? Does she find comfort for herself through doing so? And what is likely to happen to Anne now that she has given us her testimony?
  6. Serey joins an opposition movement, his brother Sokha rejoins the army, and Anne searches for the truths inherent in her particular situation. Discuss how these individuals try to balance the conflicting, and often irreconcilable, interests of the state and the individual?
  7. Would you say that music is important in this novel? Do you find a lyricism and a rhythm in Kim Echlin’s prose that remind you of music, songs and poetry? What else would you say about the narrative style of The Disappeared?
  8. Are there echoes of other writers that the author is consciously referencing? Who might they be?
  9. Does Serey challenge the reader’s notions of good and evil?
  10. How is parenthood characterised in this story?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

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