This post may contain affiliate links. Read more here.
Book club questions for In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari explore the meaning of family, loss and healing in immigrant experiences. This is a story of self-discovery, conflict, struggle and hope.
My book club questions contain spoilers, so make sure you’ve read the book first!
“In the Time of Our History” is a beautifully written novel that captures Iranian Americans in all their complexity. There is so much wisdom in its expansive generational tapestry and a vibrant story told in the most intricate, and heartfelt way. If you have any interest in the complex and flawed thing that is family, this is a novel you won’t be able to put down.
Below are the book club questions for “In the Time of Our History” I hope you will find it useful to discuss these questions in detail with your book clubs!
The Synopsis
Inspired by her own Iranian-American heritage, the acclaimed author weaves a beautifully crafted story of mothers and daughters, secrets and lies, and defying expectations—even when those choices come with an irrevocable cost.
Twelve months after her younger sister Anahita’s death, Mitra Jahani reluctantly returns to her parents’ home in suburban New Jersey to observe the Iranian custom of “The One Year.” Ana is always in Mitra’s heart, though they chose very different paths. While Ana, sweet and dutiful, bowed to their domineering father’s demands and married, Mitra rebelled, and was banished.
Caught in the middle is their mother, Shireen, torn between her fierce love for her surviving daughter and her loyalty to her husband. Yet his callousness even amid shattering loss has compelled her to rethink her own decades of submission. And when Mitra is suddenly forced to confront hard truths about her sister’s life, and the secrets each of them hid to protect others, mother and daughter reach a new understanding—and forge an unexpected path forward.
Alive with the tensions, sacrifices, and joys that thrum within the heart of every family, In the Time of Our History is also laced with the richness of ancient and modern Persian culture and politics, in a tale that is both timeless and profoundly relevant.
In love with literature? Try audio books or writing classes
for free for 30 days.✨
Book Club Questions for In the Time of Our History
1. How do the first generation American sisters, Mitra and Anahita, differ from their immigrant family members and in what ways do you believe their extended family has influenced their personalities and choices?
2. Can you put yourself in the shoes of the Jahanis, a secular and educated immigrant family forced to flee to the United States due to political unrest in Iran? How would you handle exile and migration to a foreign country and which traditions and norms would you strive to keep hold of?
3. Do you think Mitra and Anahita’s adult relationship would have been as strong if Mitra had not intervened in the abuse that Anahita suffered as a child?
4. Are you able to relate to Shireen’s journey from a traditional wife to an independent woman and do you believe this path would have been taken if Anahita and her children had not died?
5. Is there a possibility of overcoming the obstacles in Mitra and Julian’s romance, despite their deep devotion to one another?
6. Do you believe Yusef’s traumatic past excuses his behavior as a patriarch and unfaithful husband and does he achieve redemption in the end?
7. Both Salimeh and Zoya are refugees. How are they similar? How are they different? If they wound up on your doorstep, would you help one or both, or neither?
8. Do you think Kareem was let off too easily? If so, how do you think he should have paid for his actions?
9. What was your reaction to this sentence at the beginning of Part 3? “He understood that in all but a few earthly societies, rebellion in women is the same as insanity.”
10. Child sexual abuse in families is widespread across ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic lines. Each incident is unique, and each victim is affected uniquely. In what ways do you think Anahita’s trauma played a role in her decision to pursue a relationship with Aden? How do you think the story would have been different if Anahita hadn’t kept so many secrets from Mitra?
11. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the US Embassy Hostage Crisis, Iran and its society have been closed to most Americans. IN THE TIME OF OUR HISTORY gives us a peek into that world through several characters’ eyes. Were you surprised by the unconventional shape of Olga’s life? Were you sympathetic to Zoya’s plight? Could you relate to Golnaz’s discomfort in visiting her birth country? Did reading IN THE TIME OF OUR HISTORY alter your view of Iran and/or Iranians?
12. Autocracies survive when they can control the substance and flow of information to their citizens. This requires a ruthless vigilance to silence intellectuals and creatives. Have you ever been in a situation where you were afraid of writing or saying something you believed?
Bonus Book Club Questions for In the Time of Our History
These additional discussion questions explore different elements of the book, and I would highly suggest adding them to your book clubs as well.
13. How does the novel explore the theme of culture clashes within an Iranian American family? How do the characters navigate these conflicts and what do they learn from them?
14. How do the roles imposed on women within the Iranian culture affect the female characters in the novel? How do they push against or conform to these expectations?
15. What is the significance of the setting in the late 1990s, both in terms of the historical context and the way it shapes the characters’ experiences?
16. How do the relationships between the characters evolve throughout the course of the novel? How do they change and what causes these changes?
17. How does the novel explore the concept of creating a home in the world? How do the characters define and strive for a sense of home and what happens when their expectations are not met?
Additional Recommendations
Hope you enjoyed my book club question for In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari! Here are some more of my book club recommendations.
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed….
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.
Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.
At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin….
Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.
As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.
Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.
Thank you for reading my book club questions and happy reading! ❤️