On Thursday 5th November, the Lower Fourth discussed two novels in Book Club: Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and Salman Rushdie’s Hauron and the Sea of Stories.

It was widely agreed that the twist in Death on the Nile was unexpected, the drama tense, and the rescheduling of the upcoming film disappointing (though understandable). We briefly discussed how Christie’s job as a Pharmacist during World War I had informed her writing – meaning that most of her fictional murders occur by poisoning – and the sinister edge that her narrative has.

Hauron and the Sea of Stories, however, divided opinions. Some group members felt that the magical realist elements made the novel unrelatable, well others had greatly enjoyed the fantastical adventure and were looking forward to reaching the end. We discussed at length the novel’s opening question “What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true”, its post-colonial subtexts, the characters we liked and those we weren’t so fond of, and what bird or mythical creature we would choose to fly us to a fantastical land.

Next, Book Club will be tackling a dystopian novel – Lauren Oliver’s Delirium.