Stephen Swann falls in love with Zoli. At times he believes that the love is fully requited, but is he just deluding himself? Is he a reliable narrator?
“We had interrupted her solitude in order to compensate for our own,” says Swann (p. 128). Why does Swann feel so lonely and outcast before Zoli's banishment? Is he a forerunner of a certain type of international wanderer? Is he at heart, ironically, what some people might have called a “gypsy”?
Is Zoli a poet or a singer? Or are they the same thing?
When McCann first embarked on this novel he says he knew “little or nothing” about the Romani culture. What was your own experience of the Gypsy way of life? Has it changed now after reading the novel?
Not the least of McCann's achievements is the realism of the voices of his characters. How does he achieve the verisimilitude?
“One always loves what is left behind,” says Zoli (p. 258). Is our view of Romani life solely based on some sentimental folk memory of something that does not exist anymore? Will
ignorance prevent the embrace of true cultural diversity? Or will memory and/or poetry carry it through?
This epic story encompasses the twentieth century's battles with fascism and communism and idealism. Yet it comes back to the fundamental search for home. How much do the politics of our times define where our true homes are?
The epigraph quotes Tahar Djaout: “If you keep quiet, you die. If you speak, you die. So speak and die.” How much faith or strength do you think Zoli would put in these words?
Zoli says “I still call myself black even though I have rolled around in flour” (p. 277). What do you understand her to mean by this?
Zoli triumphs in Paris. It is a small, personal triumph, a journey toward joy. Will that joy extend itself through the rest of her days? Do you think her poetry will now be rescued and sung by others? What happens to Zoli after the final page?
Suggested Further Reading
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
What Is the What, by Dave Eggers
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey
by Isabel Fonseca
COLUM MCCANN is the author of five other works of fiction, including This Side of Brightness and Dancer, both of which were international bestsellers. He was featured as the “Next Great Novelist” in Esquire magazine's “America's Best and Brightest” (2003). He is the winner of the inaugural Ireland Fund of Monaco's Literary Award, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and a Pushcart Prize, and he was recently inducted into the Hennessy Hall of Fame for Irish Literature. McCann's books have been published in twenty-six languages. His short film Everything in This Country Must, directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. He lives in New York City with his wife and children.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
2008 Random House Trade Paperback Edition.
Copyright © 2006 by Colum McCann
Reading group guide copyright © 2008 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKSand colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
RANDOM HOUSE READER'S CIRCLEand colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
McCann, Colum.
Zoli: a novel / Colum McCann.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49372-9
1. Irish Travellers (Nomadicpeople)—Fiction.
2. Womenpoets, Irish—Fiction. 3. Journalists—Fiction. I. Title
PR6063.C33SZ42 2007
813 ‘.S4—dc22 2006042922
www.randomhousereadersdrcle.com
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books By This Author
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter 1 - Slovakia
Chapter 2 - Czechoslovakia
Chapter 4 - Czechoslovakia—Hungary—Austria
Chapter 5 - Slovakia
Chapter 6 - Compeggio, Northern Italy
Chapter 7 - Paris
Acknowledgments/Author's Note
Questions for Discussion
Suggested Further Reading
About The Author
Copyright