The Water Cure
Sophie Mackintosh, 2018 (2019, U.S.)
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385543873
Summary
A dystopic feminist revenge fantasy about three sisters on an isolated island, raised to fear men
King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky.
He has lain the barbed wire; he has anchored the buoys in the water; he has marked out a clear message: Do not enter. Or viewed from another angle: Not safe to leave. Here women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland.
The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world.
But when their father, the only man they've ever seen, disappears, they retreat further inward until the day two men and a boy wash ashore.
Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. Can they survive the men?
A haunting, riveting debut about the capacity for violence and the potency of female desire, The Water Cure both devastates and astonishes as it reflects our own world back at us. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1988
• Raised—Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK
• Education—University of Warwick
• Awards—Longlisted-Man Booker Prize
• Currently—lives in London, England
Sophie Mackintosh is a British novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, The Water Cure, was nominated for the 2018 Man Booker Prize.
Mackintosh was born in South Wales and grew up in Pembrokeshire. When she started writing, her initial focus was on poetry, but gravitated towards prose fiction, which she has combined around holding various jobs during her 20s.
She is bilingual, and cites Welsh mythology and Angela Carter as influences. Mackintosh enjoys running and eating, and is working on a new novel. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/28/2019.)
Book Reviews
In most apocalyptic tales, the reader is expected to accept certain baseline assumptions. The first is that the apocalypse is real; the second, that the story's main characters represent its truest victims. Sophie Mackintosh subverts both of these assumptions in her sumptuous yet sparsely written debut, The Water Cure…. Mackintosh delicately draws the reader's attention with haunting, oblique prose.
N.K. Jemisin - New York Times Book Review
An extraordinary otherworldly debut…. [Mackintosh] is writing the way that Sofia Coppola would shoot the end of the world: Everything is luminous.
Guardian (UK)
Creepy and sexy in equal measure, The Water Cure is a hypnotic portrait of three young women waking up to the world, desire, and the power of their bodies.
Independent (UK)
[A] chilling, beautifully written novel…. [T]he tautness and tension of the writing are staggering.
Judges Panel Citation - Man Booker Prize, 2018
Ingenious and incendiary
The New Yorker
Sensational…. Mackintosh’s taut novel turns a keen, unsparing eye on violence, patriarchy, and desire.
Esquire
Mackintosh’s novel follows in the footsteps of The Handmaid’s Tale… but this debut has its own alluring style, which has prompted comparisons to The Virgin Suicides for its gauzy, heady sexuality; lacy, precise prose; and the luminous sisters at its core.
Vogue
[An] intense, ambitious debut…. Mackintosh’s gripping novel is vicious in its depiction of victimhood, vibrant when victims transform into warriors, and full of outrage at patriarchal power, environmental devastation, and the dehumanization of women.
Publishers Weekly
[I]image-laden and lyrical… imagines a societal breakdown that has inflicted most of its harm on women, which seems both frightening and inevitable, offering a dark, extended metaphor on toxic male/female relations. —Reba Leiding, emerita, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Library Journal
[A] spare, dystopian debut.… While the narrative at times veers toward the pedantic, it's… [an] evocative coming-of-age novel that captures the fear, rage, and yearning of three women growing up in a time of heightened violence.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. There has been a huge boom of feminist dystopian novels in the last few years. How does The Water Cure fit into the conversation surrounding these titles and in the culture at large right now?
2. The narrative perspective shifts throughout the novel. Sometimes we hear Lia’s voice, sometimes Grace’s, and sometimes the three sisters collectively. How do the multiple points of view affect your reading experience?
3. From the ocean they live on, to the backyard pool, to their bathtub, the girls are constantly surrounded by water. How does water function as a symbol within the novel?
4. “We hold hands very tightly, so we can blur where the I ends and the sister begins.” The concept of sisterhood is important in The Water Cure, but it’s complicated. How does The Water Cure define a sister? What obligations come along with that role?
5. The rituals and therapies invented by Mother and King are designed to eradicate emotional responses in their daughters. Why do they want to manage their daughters’ emotions? What effect do their therapies end up having on their daughters?
6. Mother and King cite safety as the reason they keep their daughters isolated from the rest of the world. What does it mean to be safe? Are Lia, Sky, and Grace safe? At what cost?
7. How did your perception of Mother change throughout the course of the novel? In your opinion, how responsible is she for the way the sisters grew up, and how much is King’s fault?
8. It’s not clear what will become of sisters after the novel ends. What do you predict will happen to them?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Ghost Wall
Sarah Moss, 2019, U.S. (2018, U.K.)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
144 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374161927
Summary
A taut, gripping tale of a young woman and an Iron Age reenactment trip that unearths frightening behavior
"The light blinds you; there’s a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside."
In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age.
For two weeks, the length of her father’s vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit.
The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie’s father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs—particularly their sacrifices to the bog.
Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind.
The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past.
What comes next but human sacrifice?
A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the “primitive minds” of our ancestors. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1975
• Where—Glasgow, Scotland, UK
• Raised—Manchester, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Ph.D., Oxford University
• Currently—lives in Warwickshire, England
Sara Moss is a British writer who has written several novels, most recently Ghost Wall (2018), and a nonfiction book about living in Iceland, Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland (2012).
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Moss spent her growing-up years in Manchester, England, surrounded by strong family ties and weekends hiking in the mountains of the Lake District.
She attended Oxford, earning B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. She specialized in two areas of English literature: works of the far north and of the Romantic and early Victorian material culture.
Moss has lectured at the University of Kent, University of Iceland, Exeter University-Cornwall, and is currently Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Warwick. On her website, she claims she has "no intention of ever moving house again."
Books
Cold Earth (2009)
Night Walking (2011)
Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland (2012)
Bodies of Light (2014)
Signs for Lost Children (2015)
The Tidal Zone (2016)
Ghost Wall (2018)
(Adapted from Wikipedia and the author's website. Retrieved 1/29/2019.)
Book Reviews
[A] compact, riveting book. Female sacrifice is never far from the center of [Moss's] concerns; she wants us to question our complicity in violence, particularly against women.… [Silvie's] presence in the novel is richly physical, and through her physicality, Moss immerses us in the pleasures of nascent sexuality and adolescent independence.… Ghost Wall is tautly framed by Silvie's point of view. Her conversations and interior monologues are embedded in lean, no-nonsense paragraphs. Moss is not much interested in giving Silvie and her rebellious tendencies room to breathe. This is a novel about being constrained, even trapped.
Ayson Hagy - New York Times Book Review
A master class in compressing an unbearable sense of dread into a book that can be read in a single horrified (and admiring) hour.… Ghost Wall is perhaps the finest novel so far to come out of the British literary response to these uneasy times.
Sarah Perry - Wall Street Journal
The fear produced by this fine-honed, piercing novel springs not from the superstitious customs of prehistory but from the more intimate horrors of human nature.
Sam Sacks - Wall Street Journal
[Ghost Wall] compresses large and urgent themes—the dangers of nostalgic nationalism, the abuse of women and children, what is lost and gained when humans stop living in thrall to the natural world—into a short, sharp tale of suspense. The way Moss conjures up the dark magic and vestigial landscapes of ancient Britain reminded me a little of the horror movie The Wicker Man.… The novel’s feminism, though, felt utterly contemporary.… I read Ghost Wall in one gulp in the middle of the night. It was a worthy match for 3 a.m. disquiet, a book that evoked existential dread, but contained it, beautifully, like a shipwreck in a bottle.
Margaret Talbot - The New Yorker
Sarah Moss possesses the rare light touch when it comes to melding the uncanny with social commentary.… Ghost Wall is such a weird and distinctive story: It could be labeled a supernatural tale, a coming-of-age chronicle, even a timely meditation on the various meanings of walls themselves. All this, packed into a beautifully written story of 130 pages. No wonder I read it twice within one week.
Maureen Corrigan - NPR
A short, sharp shock of a book that closes around you like a vice as you read it.… From the terse, dismaying little prologue, in which an iron age girl is marched out and murdered before an audience of neighbours and family, to the hair-raising, heart-stopping denouement, it hurtles along and carries you with it, before dumping you, breathless, at the end.… Ghost Wall is a burnished gem of a book, brief and brilliant, and with it Moss’s star is firmly in the ascendant.
Sarah Crown - Guardian (UK)
Ghost Wall, a slim but meaty book, is like nothing I have read before; its creepy atmosphere has stayed with me all summer.… Moss combines exquisite nature writing, original characters and a cracking thriller plot to make a wonderful literary curiosity. It deserves to pull her out of the bog of underappreciation and on to the prize podiums.
Alex O'Connell - Times (UK)
The curious allure of re-enactment is cleverly explored in Moss’s short, potent novel.… A Brexity tale to send shivers down your spine.
Rebecca Rose - Financial Times (UK)
Ghost Wall.… is further proof that [Moss is] one of our very best contemporary novelists. How she hasn’t been nominated for the Man Booker Prize continues to mystify me—and this year is no exception.… [A] gripping narrative.… It’s an intoxicating concoction; inventive, intelligent, and like no other author’s work (Five-Star Review).
Lucy Scholes - Independent (UK)
Reading Ghost Wall in the context of contemporary Britain only serves to highlight the folly of wishing for the good old days.… The book can be read as a Brexit fable, where seppuku levels of self-sacrifice are forged with lemming-like gusto.… There is a spring-taut tension embedded in the pages.… Moss’s brevity is admirable, her language pristine.
Sinead Gleeson - Irish Times
[Combines] the components of a thriller with a nuanced understanding of history, its fluctuating interpretations and its often traumatic effect on the present.… Moss’s sensual writing recalls the late Helen Dunmore.… A bold, spare study of internecine conflict.
Catherine Taylor - New Statesman (UK)
(Starred review) [P]owerful and unsettling…. The novel’s highlight is Silvie, a perfectly calibrated consciousness that is energetic and lonely and prone to sharp and memorable observations…. This is a haunting, astonishing novel.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) This novella-length story is thought provoking on multiple levels, with insights into primitive and modern societies, and coming of age in the face of family violence —Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Library Journal
Tackling issues such as misogyny and class divides, Moss packs a lot into her brief but powerful narrative.
Booklist
[Explores] issues of class, sexuality, capitalism, and xenophobia…. [Moss's] decision to use unformatted dialogue…can be frustrating…, but it also shows Silvie's panic, confusion, and longing.…. A thorny, thoroughly original novel about human beings' capacity for violence.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for GHOST WALL … then take off on your own:
1. Talk about Silvie, the narrator of Ghost Wall, and her family, especially her father Bill. Why is Bill so desirous of participating in the Iron Age enactment? Why is it important for him to lay claim to ancient ancestry?
2. Talk about Silvie's flat, almost deadpan, observation that "There was a new bruise on her [mother's] arm." What does her tone tell us about the family dynamics?
3. Why does Bill disdain the modern world? Do you feel any sympathy for his anger, beliefs, or his personal quest for authenticity?
4. Silvie loves the natural world as much as her father, yet how does she differ from his need to claim it as his own?
5. How does Bill and his family compare to the university group of students and their professor? Talk about the class division between the two groups—how does class evidence itself? How seriously do the students take the enactment adventure? What is their attitude toward Bill and his need for original Britishness?
6. What does Sylvie learn from the university students? How does her association with them alter her perception of the world and of her future? Have they corrupted her or enlightened her?
7. Talk about how traditional gender roles begin to develop as the Iron Age enactment continues.
8. What prompts the men's decision to build a ghost wall? Why does it indicate that perhaps they have gone too far in channeling the tribal past? What did the wall mean in ancient times—and what does a wall mean today?
9. Ultimately, this book poses the question about the wild-man archetype? What is the human cost of this type of mythological nostalgia?
10. Why does Moss open with a prologue of human sacrifice? How does it make you feel reading it? Are we, as readers, somehow complicit in the act of sacrifice… or not?
11. As the book progressed, did you believe Bill capable of sacrificing his own daughter to the gods of the bog, as Sylvie comes to believe? Is the author pondering, perhaps, whether society has truly changed after a thousand years or so?
12. What about the book's ending?
13. Overall, what was your experience reading Ghost Wall—did it evoke a sense of dread, curiosity, or something else?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Freefall
Jessica Barry, 2019
HarperCollins
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062874832
Summary
A propulsive debut novel with the intensity of Luckiest Girl Alive and Before the Fall, about a young woman determined to survive and a mother determined to find her.
When your life is a lie, the truth can kill you.
When her fiance’s private plane crashes in the Colorado Rockies, Allison Carpenter miraculously survives. But the fight for her life is just beginning.
Allison has been living with a terrible secret, a shocking truth that powerful men will kill to keep buried. If they know she’s alive, they will come for her. She must make it home.
In the small community of Owl Creek, Maine, Maggie Carpenter learns that her only child is presumed dead. But authorities have not recovered her body—giving Maggie a shred of hope.
She, too, harbors a shameful secret: she hasn’t communicated with her daughter in two years, since a family tragedy drove Allison away. Maggie doesn’t know anything about her daughter’s life now—not even that she was engaged to wealthy pharmaceutical CEO Ben Gardner, or why she was on a private plane.
As Allison struggles across the treacherous mountain wilderness, Maggie embarks on a desperate search for answers. Immersing herself in Allison’s life, she discovers a sleek socialite hiding dark secrets.
What was Allison running from—and can Maggie uncover the truth in time to save her?
Told from the perspectives of a mother and daughter separated by distance but united by an unbreakable bond, Freefall is a riveting debut novel about two tenacious women overcoming unimaginable obstacles to protect themselves and those they love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Boston University; M.A., University College London
• Currently—lives in London, UK
Jessica Barry is a pseudonym for Melissa Pimentel, an American writer and publishing professional. She grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and was raised on a steady diet of library books and PBS. Pimentel attended Boston University, where she majored in English and Art History, before moving to London in 2004 to pursue an MA from University College London.
Today, Pimentel lives in London, England. When not working or writing, she spends her free time running around various muddy parks and reading books in Stoke Newington pubs. She and her husband, Simon, live with two their cats, Roger Livesey and BoJack Horseman. (Adapted from both British and American publishers.)
Book Reviews
[An] uneven debut…. Barry’s meditations on mother-daughter relationships and female roles add much-needed dimension to an otherwise shallow plot full of predictable twists and surface-level emotion. Still, this psychological thriller is perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Claire Mackintosh.
Publishers Weekly
Pseudonymous author Barry spins a great tale using familiar tropes but adding a surprising amount of heart to the mystery showing the fierce bond between mother and daughter. —Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN
Library Journal
[F]ast-paced.… [N]ew twists as motives are brought to light and secrets that Allison struggled to hide are revealed.…[Readers will be kept] guessing to the end, and… will enjoy this thriller written with a focus on family relationships.… [T]his debut will be everywhere.
Booklist
Although the setup…is clever and her concluding twist surprises, the plot feels underbaked…. Barry makes some keen observations regarding female identity and personal empowerment, but her characters lack verisimilitude, which undercuts the novel's drama.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. In the dire situation after the crash, Allison reminds herself that she "can’t afford to remember." What does this mean? How is this similar or different from Maggie’s realization that she "couldn’t afford to relive every memory"? In what ways is memory a blessing or a burden? What are the most important functions of memory?
2. In the depths of her despair, Maggie considers the possibility that "no one deserves anything." What does she mean? Why is such an idea "enough to make [her] knees give way"?
3. After Charles’ death, Allison refuses to see or talk to her mother for years. Why? Was it best for Maggie to respect this or, as she later believes, should she have "kept pushing" to make contact?
4. Why was it "important" to Allison’s father that she struggle to learn to start a fire with stone sparks instead of matches? What other difficult lessons might be important later in one’s life?
5. Allison was involved with a magazine that intended to show "women celebrating women" in a way that would "interrogate" the publishing and advertising industries. What does this mean? In what ways are such industries harmful to women? How might that be improved?
6. What skills and strengths does Allison call upon and discover as she struggles to survive in the mountains? Do you think you could survive in her circumstances?
7. At one point, purposefully gouging her hand on sharp rock to stay awake, Allison finds that, "the pain shocks through… clearing my mind like a gust of wind." In what other ways might pain be useful or necessary? What determines a person’s pain threshold?
8. At one point, obsessed with exercise and diet to please Ben, Allison feels "faint and flushed with righteousness" and a "power in abstention." How does her obsession and struggles with body image speak to the extreme pressures that women experience in our society?
9. In what ways is Shannon an effective officer? How in particular does she help Maggie?
10. Discussing grief, Tony explains to Maggie that "even when you’re surrounded by people, you’re still completely lonely," and "you’ve got to deal with it whatever way you can." How does Maggie respond to her grief? What are the healthiest responses to loss and regret?
11. Unable to remember the funeral service for Charles, Maggie thinks, "The mind is funny that way." What might she mean?
12. Maggie had always tried to teach Allison "how important it was for a woman to be independent." What, besides financial independence, does this mean for Maggie?
13. Jim suggests to Maggie that her estrangement from Allison is "the way of the world… our children grow up and become strangers to us." In what ways is this true or not? What elements of modern living might cause such separation? What, if anything, can we do about it?
14. Settled back into her mother’s house after all that happened, Allison acknowledges that "it feels like home" and is "etched in [her] bones." What is home? In what ways is it a place or a feeling? How is it important throughout one’s life?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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The Weight of a Piano
Chris Cander, 2019
Knopf Doubleday
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525654674
Summary
A tour-de-force about two women and the piano that inexorably ties their lives together through time and across continents, for better and for worse.
In 1962, in the Soviet Union, eight-year-old Katya is bequeathed what will become the love of her life: a Bluthner piano, built at the turn of the century in Germany, on which she discovers everything that she herself can do with music and what music, in turn, does for her.
Yet after marrying, she emigrates with her young family from Russia to America, at her husband's frantic insistence, and her piano is lost in the shuffle.
In 2012, in Bakersfield, California, twenty-six-year-old Clara Lundy loses another boyfriend and again has to find a new apartment, which is complicated by the gift her father had given her for her twelfth birthday, shortly before he and her mother died in a fire that burned their house down: a Bluthner upright she has never learned to play.
Orphaned, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, who in his car-repair shop trained her to become a first-rate mechanic, much to the surprise of her subsequent customers.
But this work, her true mainstay in a scattered life, is put on hold when her hand gets broken while the piano's being moved—and in sudden frustration she chooses to sell it. And what becomes crucial is who the most interested party turns out to be… (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1968?
• Where—Houston, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Houston
• Currently—lives in Houston, Texas
Chris Cander is a novelist, children’s book author, screenplay writer, and writer-in-residence for Houston-based Writers in the Schools. Born in Houston, Cander attended the Honors College of the University of Houston and continues to live in Houston with her husband and two children.
In 1994, she attended the Ploughshares International Fiction Writer’s Seminar at Kasteel Well, Netherlands. The following year, she attended the prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference in Vermont, where she was able to work alongside some of her favorite authors.
Cander is the author most recently of the novel, The Weight of a Piano (2019). Whisper Hollow (2015) was selected as an Indie Next pick and nominated for the Kirkus Prize in fiction, while her award-winning novel 11 Stories (2013) was included in Kirkus’s best indie general fiction.
Her children’s book The Word Burglar (2014) received the silver Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards for Reading Skills & Literacy.
Cander well knows that the pen is mightier than the sword, but she’s willing to wield one of those, too. A former fitness competitor and model, she currently holds a 3rd dan in taekwondo and is a certified women’s defensive tactics instructor.
She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Author’s Guild, the Writers’ League of Texas, PEN, and MENSA. (Adapted from Amazon.)
Book Reviews
The Weight of a Piano is about memory and identity. A young Californian named Clara wonders if "every single thing" ever played on her Bluthner had "left an afterimage, a shadow of emotion deposited somewhere inside the case." … There’s a lot to process here, but Cander is a smart, deft storyteller who holds her Scriabin-worthy tale together. She understands how something as beloved as a piano can actually be a burden.
James Barron - New York Times Book Review
In The Weight of a Piano, two women are linked by one instrument.… Chris Cander masterfully reveals how these women’s lives connect (and how the piano came to be made) and, in the process, meditates on grief and living in the past.
Elizabeth Sile - Real Simple
(Starred review) [E]legiac and evocative.… Cander’s novel delves into… artistic inspiration and how family legacy… can both ignite imagination and limit its scope. Cander brilliantly and convincingly expresses music and visual art in her writing, capturing both within a near-alien but surprisingly stunning landscape.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) [T]his beautiful tale of the intersecting stories of Katya and Clara, two strong women working hard to rebuild their shattered lives, is impossible to put down and impossible to forget. —Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Library Journal
Strong characterization and attention to detail, whether in the manufacture of a piano or in the desolate beauty of Death Valley, elevate Cander's tale about learning to let go of the past.
Booklist
(Starred review) Deftly plotted and well written, a gentle meditation on the healing power of art—and its limitations.… Cander grabs the reader in her bravura, thickly detailed opening pages [and] expertly parcels out her revelations [as] she builds parallel narratives [toward] an odd but beautiful finale.
Kirkus Reviews
A charming, puzzling plot that gets more exciting and addictive the deeper you sink into it.… Cander’s unadorned prose composes some truly beautiful descriptions of the joy of music. —Leslie Hinson
BookPage
Discussion Questions
1. Why do you think the author decided to open the story with a description of the origins of the Bluthner piano? Did anything surprise you about the piano’s history? What major themes of the novel does this first chapter foretell?
2. How would you describe Clara Lundy? What has she "always prided herself on" (page 13), and why does she refuse romantic advances and offers of help from Peter? What leads to the failure of Clara’s relationships with Ryan and Bobby? What does this reveal about her ideas of love and connection? What values ultimately seem to be the most important to Clara?
3. How does Katya come to own the Bluthner piano? Who owned the piano before her, and what did people imagine about the piano’s former owner? Were they correct in their assumptions about this person? How did Katya feel about the former owner? What did Katya’s father believe about this person’s character, and what made him think this?
4. Explore the theme of memory. What does Clara remember about her parents, their relationship, and their home life together? What were "the moments Clara recalled most vividly" (page 21)? Would you say that her memory is reliable? How are the other characters impacted by their own memories? What might the novel reveal or suggest about the nature of memory?
5. Analyze the treatment of loss and grief in the novel. How does Clara cope with the loss of her parents and their home? How do her new caretakers try "to soothe her" (page 22)? What method seems to be most helpful to her? Where does she learn "how to live with her losses" (page 22)? What losses do the other characters suffer, and how do they cope with these losses and the grief that accompanies them? Are any of the characters able to overcome their grief or reach catharsis? If so, how?
6. Consider the important role that art plays in the lives of the characters. Which of the characters create art, and why do they do this? What was Katya’s first love? Why does Greg enjoy photography? What does Boris believe can be accomplished via dance and performance? How are these characters affected by their proximity to the arts? Likewise, how are the characters in the novel affected by their experience of art created by others?
7. Why does Mikhail insist that the family leave their home in Leningrad and go to America? How does Katya feel about this? What does the novel reveal about the experience of immigration and the American Dream? What does the process of immigration entail? What hardships does the family endure as they make this transition? What must they leave behind? What risks do they take? Is the family ultimately better off in America? Discuss.
8. Why does Boris visit Katya after three and a half years? What does he tell Katya is his "wish" (page 67)? What does he believe is their duty? How does Katya respond to his proposal? What makes her believe that the visit may be a test?
9. Why does Clara decide to sell the Bluthner piano, and who buys it? What does the purchaser say that he wants with the piano? What does he tell Clara he is "trying to depict" (page 74) with the piano? What does he want the piano to symbolize?
10. Who does Katya believe is talking to her once she is in America? What does she hear? Why does she ask her husband if they can visit Death Valley? How does she feel when she looks at the photographs her husband took of her there? What does she believe they reveal?
11. What fable does Katya share with her son Grisha and what is the message at the heart of this fable? What does the story reveal about its storyteller? What does Grisha not realize about the story until he is an adult?
12. What surprises Greg about Clara’s piano when he finally gets to see it in person, and why does it make him emotional? What didn’t he notice in the photographs of the piano at the time of its purchase? Why does Clara decide to follow Greg from this point on?
13. Who does Katya receive a letter from, and what message does it contain? What does the sender tell Katya will change the world? Why is Katya overjoyed after receiving the letter, and how does she offer to repay the messenger who delivers the letter? How does this decision affect her life and the life of her son?
14. What does the novel suggest about how well we can know other people—and ourselves? How well would you say the characters know themselves? How do they come to know themselves better? What causes them to misunderstand others, and what helps them to correct these misunderstandings and come to a better knowledge of one another?
15. What is remarkable about the sailing stones that Greg and Clara see in Death Valley? What does Greg think they look like they are doing? To what or to whom does he compare them?
16. Why was Greg determined to take the piano to Death Valley? What did he plan to do with the piano there? Why does he later change his mind and what does he decide to do with it instead?
17. How are Clara and Greg connected, and how does each respond to this connection? How did Clara come to own the Bluthner piano? What effect does the revelation of the piano’s provenance have on Clara, and how does it influence or alter her understanding of her own past?
18. Why do you think the author chose to include a passage told from the point of view of the piano itself? What effect did this anthropomorphism have on you as a reader? What "weight" (308) does the piano carry?
19. What choices does Clara make at the conclusion of the story? Were you surprised by her decisions? Why or why not? What becomes of the piano? What does Clara mean when she says that she doesn’t "want to be Sisyphus anymore" (311)?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
The Only Woman in the Room
Marie Benedict, 2019
Sourcebooks
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781492666868
Summary
She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both?
Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer.
Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess.
She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.
But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis… if anyone would listen to her.
A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• AKA—Heather Terrell
• Birth—ca. 1968-69
• Raised—Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Boston College; J.D., Boston University
• Currently—lives in Sewickley, Pennsylvania
Marie Benedict, AKA Heather Terrell, writes both adult and young adult fiction. She is perhaps best known as Marie Benedict for her works of historical fiction: The Only Woman in the Room (2019), Carnegie's Maid (2018), and The Other Einstein (2016).
As Heather Terrell, she has written Brigid of Kildare (2010, based on the medieval life of Ireland's St. Brigid) and two suspense novels, The Map Thief (2008) and The Chrysalis (2007).
Her young adult books are also under Heather Terrell: the Books of Eva series (Relic, Boundary, and Chronicle), as well as the Fallen Angel series (Fallen Angel and Eternity).
Benedict/Terrill has been drawn to stories of strong women, especially unsung heroines, both real and fictional. A book lover from childhood, it was a gift from her aunt that sparked her imagination—Marion Zimmerman Bradley's tale about the women of the Arthurian legend, The Mists of Avalon. As she told Book Reporter:
This book opened my eyes to the hidden voices and truths lurking in history and legend—particularly the buried histories of women—and set me on an admittedly circuitous path toward a life of uncovering those unknown stories and memorializing them through fiction.
Before becoming an author Benedict/Terrill practiced law in New York City. She received her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from Boston University. She met her husband in 2002 while standing in the customs line after landing in Hong Kong. The two were married in 2002 and have since moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they live with their children. (Adapted from various online sources.)
Book Reviews
[R]ousing historical novel…. Benedict paints a shining portrait of a complicated woman who knows the astonishing power of her beauty but longs to be recognized for her sharp intellect. Readers will be enthralled.
Publishers Weekly
Relevant today, especially women's worth in a man's world… a worthy read about this gorgeous and talented woman.
New York Journal of Books
[A] compelling fictionalized biography pays tribute to the overlooked scientific contributions and the hidden depths of a stunning beauty and beloved movie star.
Booklist
One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany.… A captivating story of a complicated woman blazing new trails.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM … then take off on your own:
1. Talk about Hedy's marriage to Friedrich Mandl. Was there any indication beforehand of his jealous and violent nature, any clues that might have warned Hedy off? What were the familial and political pressures that convinced Hedy, merely a teenager, to marry a man much older than she?
2. Once in America, how did Hedy's grief and guilt inspire her to turn to scientific investigation? How had her father helped prepare her for the rigors of science?
3. Are you able to grasp the basics of frequency-hopping, as well as its potential boon to the war effort? Does the author do an a good job explaining the science?
4. Talk about the era's view of women. How did Hedy react to the misogyny, prejudice, even humiliation that she faced in her attempt to interest the military in her invention. Might her beauty and fame as a "mere" film star have made it even more difficult for her to have her invention taken seriously?
5. Follow-up to Question 4: Do a bit of research into other women in history who faced similar barriers in their attempts to penetrate the male domains of science and technology. Consider the plight of the women of color at Nasa in the 1950s (Hidden Figures); or Grete Hermann, who in the 1930s found a flaw in the great mathematician John von Neumann's proof for quantum physics yet whose finding was ignored. Consider Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who in 1912 devised the method of calculating the distances of stars yet was prohibited, as a female, from operating the Harvard Observatory's telescopes. Her vital contribution to astronomy, of course, went unrecognized. Also, consider Elizebeth Smith Friedman, who, along with her husband William, pioneered modern-day cryptology, playing a major role in winning World War II. Her work went unrecognized for decades.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)