Lights All Night Long (Fitzpatrick) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. Ilya arrives in Leffie and finds nearly everything about it foreign and strange, from the Masons’ church to the swimming pool that’s lit up at night. Have you had a similar fish-out-of-water experience in an entirely new setting? What specific features about your new surroundings seemed most strange to you?

2. One of the primary themes of the novel is the complexity of Ilya and Vladimir’s relationship. What are the different forms that their brotherly bond takes, and what circumstances cause that bond to shift and change?

3. Berlozhniki and Leffie are different in so many ways. What are some ways that they might be more similar than it seems at first glance?

4. Very soon after Ilya arrives, he and Sadie find themselves to be kindred spirits. What do you think draws them together so strongly?

5. Gabe Thompson is an enigmatic supporting character in the novel. What do you take from his short-lived experience in Berlozhniki, and what do you make of the model he builds of the town upon his return home?

6. Their role in solving the murders aside, what role do you think The Adventures of Michael & Stephanie English-language tapes serve in Ilya’s life, first in Berlozhniki and then once he arrives in Leffie?

7. How would you describe the growth or change that Ilya undergoes during his first year in the United States?

8. Throughout the novel, Ilya experiences powerful feelings of homesickness for Berlozhniki, but by its end, he’s come to think of Leffie as a kind of home as well. What do you think this says about what "home" means to us, and do you think more than one place can be a true home to the same person?

9. Mothers play a very large role in this story. How do you think the personalities of Sadie, Ilya, and Vladimir have been shaped by their mothers?

10. Vladimir’s story ends with devastating finality, but Ilya’s story is left open-ended. What do you think happens to Ilya after the novel ends? How about Sadie and her mother, or Maria Mikhailovna?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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