Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. In what way does the city change the narrator?
    2. What’s your favourite scene in The Blood of Flowers and why? To what extent does our narrator control her own destiny? Discuss the nature of friendship in The Blood of Flowers. The heroine in The Blood of Flowers discovers that she has a talent for making carpets. What is the talent of which you are most proud? Do you think the way in which men and women interact with one another in this period, as portrayed in this novel, is radically different to the present-day? Were you aware of sighehs before you read this novel? Do you think the narrator made the right decision in agreeing to it, given her circumstances? The narrator’s mother says that she will be estranged from the family if she does not accept the sigheh. Is this an act of betrayal or pragmatism? ‘…As each of the thick wooden gates slammed behind me, I thought about how richly dressed Maryam was, how soft her hands…and yet I did not envy her. Each time a gate closed with a thud, I was reminded that while I was free to come and go, she could not leave without an approved reason and a large entourage.’ At what point in the novel do you think the narrator truly learns the value of her independence? Why do you think Gordiyeh treats the narrator and her mother so badly? What role does food play in The Blood of Flowers?
  2. ‘In the spring of the year that I was supposed to be married, a comet launched itself over the skies of my village. It was brighter than any comet we had ever seen, and more evil. Night after night, as it crawled across our skies spraying its cold white seeds of sorrow, we tried to decipher the fearsome messages of the stars.’ Discuss the influence of superstition on characters’ lives in The Blood of Flowers.
  3. What other books would you recommend to a reader who has enjoyed this one?

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