Lost Lake (Allen) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. The title of this book is Lost Lake, and the theme of loss runs throughout the entire narrative.
What did you think the titular lake’s name meant when you started reading the book, and did
that idea change for you over the course of the book?

2. Storytelling plays a large role in the lives of many of the characters in this story—and Kate, a
born storyteller, has the power to alter Wes’s perspective about his sad and troubled past just
through one powerful retelling. Who else tells themselves stories about their history, and do
you think all their stories are true?

3. Eby’s falling-down resort attracts misfits of all kinds, some more likable than others. Which
characters did you find the most endearing? And which, inversely, alienated you? Were there
others who won you over by the novel’s end?

4. Sarah Addison Allen writes a sort of everyday magic into her stories that sets her apart, and it
seems to touch every character in a different way. Lisette experiences a heartbreaking sort of
magic, in the haunting companion who shares her kitchen and her silence. Devin, meanwhile,
experiences a haunting of sorts too—but one that feels far more innocent and hopeful. Why do
you think these two characters are the ones to experience ghosts firsthand? What sets them
apart from their compatriots at the lake?

5. Other characters, like Kate and Eby, experience their life’s magic as a sort of enchantment,
unpredictable and yet not unpleasant. Did that carry over to you as you were reading it? Did
the characters’ easy acceptance of day-to-day magical happenings make it easier for you to
believe in them too?

6. The art from the postcards of Lost Lake hold great meaning to those who see them. Would any
of them make you want to visit Eby’s home? What did you think of the last one that shows a
young and in love Eby and George? Were they pictured the way you’d visualized them?

7. What was your view of Wes before you read the letter he finally shared with Kate? How did that
change when you learned what he had done all those years ago?

8. The women in Kate’s extended family are all too experienced with widowhood. Eby calls it the
"Morris curse." But all of the widows react very differently to their tragedies. What is it about
some of the Morris women that makes them especially vulnerable to losing themselves in grief?
What, do you think, would have happened to Kate and Devin had Kate never ‘woken up’ from
her own sorrow?

9. Eby says that if "we measured life in the things that almost happened, we wouldn’t get
anywhere." Do you agree? You may wish to talk about your own fateful "almosts" as well.

10. At the end of the book, Eby is bound for Europe again, traveling for the first time since her
honeymoon. What do you think draws her back there, and what do you imagine she might send
or bring home from her travels?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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