BKMT READING GUIDES
The Gift: A Novel (Chiveis Trilogy)
by Bryan M. Litfin
Paperback : 416 pages
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The Chiveis Trilogy takes readers hundreds of years into the future. War and disease have destroyed civilization as we know it. Much technology has been discarded ...
Introduction
This second book in the Chiveis Trilogy continues the search for the New Testament in a world where the Bible has been lost.
The Chiveis Trilogy takes readers hundreds of years into the future. War and disease have destroyed civilization as we know it. Much technology has been discarded and history is largely forgotten. Slowly, the few survivors have begun to build new communities, and kingdoms now prosper in a kind of feudal order. But the Word of God has been lost for centuries.
After the finding of an Old Testament in book one of the trilogy, The Gift picks up the story of Teo and Ana. Exiled from their homeland and trying to survive in unknown and dangerous lands, they search for any record of the missing Testament. Their journeys lead them into the region we know as Italy. An elite society welcomes Ana, who finds she must choose between her new life and her dream of returning to Chiveis. Will Teo and Ana's relationship withstand the circumstances and new enemies pulling them apart? And can Teo keep ahead of a powerful and mysterious force opposing his search for the New Testament?
Litfin's imagination and fast-paced narrative style will capture the hearts and minds of all fiction readers.
Excerpt
Anastasia lay awake under a bearskin cloak, listening to the alien sounds of a land far from home. The stub of a candle hung from the ceiling of her leather tent, providing enough light to chase away the nocturnal spirits, but not the heaviness in Ana’s heart. ...
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Discussion Questions
From the author:1. Why is the novel called The Gift? What “gifts” can you identify in the narrative?
2. Consider the situation with the bottle of medicine in chapter 2. Teo makes a heroic run to fetch it, but the necessary medicine was with Bard all along. In what way does this parallel the larger themes that emerge through the narrative?
3. In this story Teo and Ana both serve as Christ-figures. How does Teo exemplify the Incarnation in Part One? What does Ana teach us about the Cross in Part Two?
4. Why does Ana get caught up in a fast lifestyle? What delusions does she believe? What is the source of her confusion?
5. Why is Dohj Cristof driven mad by Ana?
6. What theological themes are represented by Ana’s encounter with Drake on Hahnerat? Hint: what do the names of these two characters mean (an Internet search can be helpful here)?
7. Who is the main villain in this story? Why do you think so?
8. In your opinion what is the most exciting scene in the book? The most saddening? The most romantic? The most mysterious?
9. By the end of the story, is Vanita Labella “saved”?
10. What does the Overseer reveal about the nature of Christianity?
11. In the Chiveis Trilogy many of the locations are actual places. For example, Roma is obviously Rome. Can you identify any specific locations within the city? Thinking further afield, where is Nuo Genov? The Domo in the Forbidden Zone? Greater Lake? Manacho? The newly-discovered pass that Ana crosses while injured? The island of Hahnerat?
12. What meaning do you discern in the names of the book’s three acts (Solidarity, Extravagancy, Victory)?
13. When does Teo become aware he is in love with Ana? When does Ana realize it in return?
14. Why is Teo so committed to building and using the gunpowder bomb in Part Three?
15. Summarize the theological theme of the book in one sentence.
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
Note from author Brian Liftin: The Chiveis Trilogy imagines a world where Christianity is lost, then a Bible is discovered. What would happen? The story is set 400 years in the post-nuclear future. Society has climbed back to a chivalrous medieval lifestyle. The novel reads more like a swashbuckling adventure than a dystopian survival story. In The Sword, Teofil and Anastasia find themselves swept up in the adventure of their lives. They discover an Old Testament in an abandoned French cathedral—which leads to opposition from their enemies. The Gift tells the story of their exile from their Swiss homeland of Chiveis. Teo and Ana criss-cross Italy from the Alps to the Riviera to Rome, trying to recover the New Testament and learn the identity of the mysterious Iesus Christus. I wrote this novel to entertain and inspire. References to church history and theology abound in the narrative. The Gift explores the life and work of Jesus through characters who assume the role of Christ-figures. In the end we learn precisely what Jesus taught: that the path to God is found among the weak and lowly, not the high and mighty.Book Club Recommendations
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