• Reading Group Guide
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an Excerpt

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To Paula Huntley's students it's Kosova, not Kosovo, like we
Americans like to call that little war-torn country. That's just
one of the changes Huntley had to get used to when she began
teaching English to a group of Kosovar Albanians. Transplanted from
her comfortable San Francisco life to Prishtina, Kosovo, Huntley
began keeping a journal to express her struggles and triumphs in
her new surroundings. Two years later, that same journal would be
published as a book destined to be a bestseller.

Paula Huntley is the epitome of a great teacher --- one who goes
above and beyond the call of duty to help her students succeed. One
of her noble feats is organizing an extracurricular reading group
for her students known as the Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo. As her
students read Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, the parallels
between their lives and the life of the old man become increasingly
evident to both Huntley and her students. Through their
interaction, both Huntley and her students learn the lessons of
perseverance, faith and hope.

THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO offers much more than the typical
memoir. Through Huntley's masterful writing and reflections, the
reader experiences the horrors that her students lived through
during the Serbian genocide of Kosovar Albanians. A timely reminder
of what war does to a country, THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO
gives great insights into the injustices occurring throughout the
world.

This book contains a myriad of emotions. It elicits laughter as
Huntley and her students struggle to break down cultural and
language barriers. It evokes tears as you read of the losses the
Kosovars experienced. It makes you angry, fills you with hope and
drowns you in sorrow --- all at the same time. But most of all, it
makes you think about all of the things you take for granted that
Paula Huntley's students only dream of.