Summerland (Hilderbrand) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. What do you think of the use of Nantucket’s collective voice in Summerland ? How does the island—and the voice of its people—play its own role in the novel?

2. Following the tragic accident, Jordan decides to move his family to Australia for a year, even though Jake does not want to leave the island. For whom did Jordan make that decision? Why?

3. How would you describe Penny’s relationship with Ava? Should Ava have realized something more serious was wrong with Penny? What did Ava provide Penny that no one else could?

4. What do you think of Jordan’s decision not to run a story about the accident in the Nantucket Standard ? Do you think he made the right choice?

5. Throughout the novel, many characters struggle with guilt over the cause of the car accident, including Demeter and Jake. Do you think Penny was solely responsible for the accident? Or was anyone else at fault? Why or why not?

6. Penny had a very sensitive soul. What did she struggle with? Was she determined to end her life?

7. Perth and Nantucket are both coastal towns, but they are a world apart. How does life differ in these two places? What do Jordan and Jake learn from their time in Perth?

8. What caused Demeter to start drinking in an unhealthy way? What led her to continue her drinking, and what were the consequences?

9. What sparked Ava’s reawakening, and what led to her big decisions at the end of the novel?

10. What do you think of Hobby’s decision to keep Demeter’s secret news to himself? Do you think that’s something he should have shared with others?

11. How are the lives of the parents in the novel influenced by the lives of their children—and vice versa?

12. How does each character in Summerland find a way to start healing as the summer draws to a close?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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