Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Wolf Road...then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Elka: she's far from squeamish...but what else would you say about her? Is she an engaging character? Do you find her credible?
2. The Wolf Road contains a fair amount of violence, some of it quite visceral. In writing the book, Beth Lewis has said that she "felt like glossing over those scenes" but that to do so would being doing "a disservice to her character and readers." What might she mean by that? What affect does the violence have on Elka and her sense of determination? What affect does it have on you, the reader?
3. Discuss the "Damned Stupid" event which left the world so altered. What exactly was it?
4. How are roads used as metaphors in this book. Consider Elka's thoughts about roads:
I don’t much like roads. Roads is some other man’s path that people follow no question. All my life I lived by rules of the forest and rules of myself. One of them rules is don’t go trusting another man’s path.
Journies are also traditional literary metaphors. How does Elka's journey function symbolically in The Wolf Road?
5. What role does the wolf club play in Elka's survival?
6. Did the book's ending take you by surprise? Were you caught off guard, or did you see in coming it?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)