BKMT READING GUIDES
Soul
by Tobsha Learner
Paperback : 432 pages
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Introduction
Learner’s The Witch of Cologne is an erotically-charged novel of people swept inexorably along by events they could not control. In Soul, Learner relates the story of Lavinia and Julia Huntington, passionate women trapped in emotional whirlpools that threaten to drown them and everyone they love. In 19th century Britain, Lavinia is married to an older man who seems to appreciate her lively curiosity. Lavinia proves to be an apt pupil in both the study and the bedroom, glorying in the pleasures of the physical. In 21st century Los Angeles, geneticist Julia is trying to identify people who can kill without remorse. Stunned to discover that she seems to possess the trait she is looking for, Julia is reassured of her emotions by her intense passion for her husband and her delight in her pregnancy. In the past, Lavinia’s desire for her husband grows, but his cools as he becomes fascinated with another. In the present, Julia’s love overwhelms her husband, who leaves her. Lavinia and Julia feel the tortures of passion unspent. Cold logic tells them that the deaths of their tormentors will bring them peace. Separated by a hundred years, two Huntington women face the same decision. Their choices will echo far into the future.
Excerpt
Chapter One.Ireland, 1849
The housekeeper had brought Lavinia to the remote place before, to this gully south of the village where the peat bog finished in a sharp edge, sliced away like a layer cake. The housekeeper’s sister had married a peatcutter whose small stone and peat hut crouched resolute against the unforgiving elements. They were Catholics, now suffering under the great famine. ...
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Discussion Questions
1. How does Soul depict the notion that behavioural traits – ie – choice of partner, repeated emotional cycles – could be genetic and carried through families? Does the novel finally come out on the side of free-will or determinism?
2. In what ways does Learner deliberately echo the historical events of the mid 19th century with the historical events of early 21st century and how do these events impact on the characters and inform their choices?
3. Both Lavinia and Julia make transgressive choices of lovers – what solace do these relationships offer the women?
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
‘Soul is the story of two women and their unraveling marriages: Julia, an American geneticist working out of U.C.L.A who specialises in genetics and the propensity to violence, and Lavinia, her great-grandmother, who stands trial for the murder of her husband in London in 1861. ‘The challenge in writing it was to create a gripping linear story that moved from one era to another at a breakneck pace without jarring the reader and at the same time remaining true to the respective eras. ‘But Soul is also a book about nature versus nurture and the notion that we might be less in control of our destinies than we like to imagine: that if there is a soul, it may lie within the nucleus of a gene.’ - Tobsha LearnerBook Club Recommendations
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