Reader's companion
A companion to the novel
The world, the people, the chapters and the argument of the novel, with questions for reading groups.
This companion is for readers and book groups who want to stay a little longer in the world of Songs of Dust and Water: where the villages lie, how the money moves, what the machines do, and why so many arguments in the book come down to a well rope, a ledger on a wall or a plastic key “lighter than a groundnut”.
The guide opens with the world of the book: Senebia, its peoples and faith, its places, its institutions and money, and the water and land work that Part Two is built on. These sections give set-up facts freely, but they do not say how the vote turns out, who broke the road, or how the story ends.
Next come the people of the story, a timeline and a note on each chapter. Each person’s entry keeps their later story folded until you reach the chapter it names, and the chapter notes are best read one at a time, after each chapter, so you can stop wherever you have got to. The timeline and the final sections, on the book’s larger argument and on questions for discussion, assume you have finished the novel.
A few practical notes:
- Quotations are from the novel, with the chapter in brackets, for example (ch23). The short passage that opens Part Two is called the bridge.
- Part Two counts its years from the harvester’s arrival at Nafawol, under headings such as Year 3, Koriteh, which place events by season or festival, as the villagers would.
- The back of the novel has lists of the people in each part, a glossary called Words and Names and a guide to saying the names. Every word, name or custom made up for the story is marked (fictional) there.
The world and its places
Senebia and its two republics, its peoples and faith, the remembered empires, and the villages and towns of the story. Set-up only: nothing here gives away how the story turns out.Part 2Institutions, money, water and land
How the plant, the Proxima Fund, the Coffer Fund, the Union and the offer work, and how the well, the harvester, the boreholes, the stone lines and the purifier work.Part 3The people and the timeline
Who each person is when we first meet them, what they want and a line in their own voice. What they do later stays folded until you have read that far.Part 4Chapter by chapter
A companion to every chapter, the bridge and the Coda. Read only as far as you have got.Part 5The argument, motifs and questions
What the novel is arguing, the objects that carry it, the echoes between the two parts, and questions for discussion. These sections assume you have finished the book.Cast lists, glossary and pronunciationDownload the companion (Word; includes the ending)
