Book Club Discussion Guide

Spoiler Alert: Please note that the following guide includes spoilers. If you have not read The Resurrector yet, and do not wish to have any spoilers, please do not continue reading.

Discussion questions for book clubs reading The Resurrector:

  1. Do you think that Chaim’s journey makes a difference? Is he a different person by the end of the book?
  2. Ram and Millie are siblings from the same family, but they are very different in their faith and religious practice. What do you think affects this? Is it their position in the family unit, their gender, their age, their personality, the experiences they had in life leading to this point?
  3. Sarah, the family’s mother, had died a few years before the time of Nir’s death. How is her absence felt? How did her death change the family?
  4. Although the main characters are male, there are several strong women in the book: Tammy, Millie, Chava and Sarah. What role do you think they play in the story? Were you able to connect with them?
  5. Israel and it’s cultural and religion tensions are in the background of the story, told from the personal experience of the author. Were there new things you learned from the book about Israel? How did the book connect with your own experience visiting or living in Israel?
  6. There are many symbols in the book, such as fish, crabs/scorpions/snakes, toy airplanes, the names of the main characters (Chaim, Nir and Ram), and more. What did you take from the symbols in the book? Did you find other symbols and how did they affect your reading experience?
  7. Judaism, like other religions and cultures, have mysticism aspects. How are these represented in your Jewish practice? Do you think they have enough representation in fiction?
  8. At the end of Chaim’s journey we learn with him that Nir committed a suicide. Do you think this knowledge, had it been known up front, would have changed Chaim’s attitude in the same way it did?
  9. Did you feel the identify of the Resurrector a proper one or would you prefer it would have been someone like Elijah the Prophet?
  10. Do you have a loved one that you would like the chance to talk with again? Who would it be? What would you tell them?