Discussion Questions
1. Love is presented in many forms in Small Change: a mother and her children; a wife and husband; a son’s devotion for his parents; sisters and friends. Which of these relationships is most successful and why? How are they similar or different from your definition of love and caring?
2. Small Change begins with a desperate act and deals with difficult issues, but Rodolico proposes the novel as “a viable alternative to modern-day despair." Did you find the novel inspiring? Did it make you want to better the world, even in a small way?
3. One of the characters is a self-confessed liar, and therefore may be considered an unreliable narrator. Did this short-coming influence your sense of compassion for her? Or did the complication in her character make her seem more human and therefore more worthy of your sympathy?
4. The protagonist, Christine, has a sixth sense, if and when she chooses to follow it. Does the unexplainable spiritual aspect of the story seem realistic or far-fetched?
5. Each of the characters in Small Change experiences an alteration during the course of the book. How does Thomas change? Christine? Anne? Does this metamorphosis occur for the secondary characters as well? Has their transformation altered you, as a reader?
6. In Rodolico’s previous novel, Two Seas, nature played a significant role, almost as if it were the protagonist of the story. How is nature portrayed in Small Change? How does it alter as the story shifts from the English countryside to London to Florence, Italy? Do the characters behave differently according to the nature that surrounds them?
7. Was the unfolding of Small Change predictable or unexpected? Were you surprised by the book's ending? Were you sorry to say goodbye to the characters?
8. How would you categorize Small Change? Is it a love story? A story about adoption? Family and Relationships? Mothers and Children? Human Rights?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
Small Change (Rodolico) - Discussion Questions
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