Changing Spaces
Nancy King, 2014
Plain View Press
260 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781891386435
Summary
What would you do if you woke up in your usual life, and by evening, the world as you'd known it was irrevocably changed?
Join runaway wife, Laura Feldman, as she hits the road after the love of her life—her husband of 40 years—suddenly wants a divorce to be with a younger woman. Along the bumpy road to reconnecting her disconnected self, this Midwestern wife finds a new life in the bold colors and close friendships of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Unbeknownst to her, Laura's husband is in hot pursuit while she gets a crash course in assertiveness and an unforgettable "makeover."
When her husband finally catches up with Laura, that's when the real fun begins. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA
• Education—B.S., State University of New York;
M.A., Universityof Delaware; Ph.D., Union
Institute and University
• Currently—lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Nancy King, Ph.D is the award-winning author of several novels including Changing Spaces, The Stones Speak (which was optioned for a film), Morning Light, A Woman Walking, and the non-fiction Dancing with Wonder: Self-Discovery through Stories.
She frequently writes for the online travel journal, Your Life Is A Trip. Dr. King has extensive experience teaching in universities in Delaware and New Mexico (Honors Programs [Theatre, Creativity and World Literature], and currently conducts arts-based workshops internationally. She finds inspiration in weaving and hiking in the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico where she makes her home. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Nancy King on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Location. Location. Location. Nancy King gets it right when she explores how a woman radically changes her life by changing her location. A plant can't thrive in any old soil; it has to be the right terrain. Changing Spaces is a reminder that one can leave the past behind, find new soil, and thrive in a different, and better, present and future. A page turner...You feel like the proverbial fly on the adobe wall when you see how Laura learns the power of female friendship.
Judith Fein, author (Life Is a Trip and The Spoon from Minkowitz)
Heartbreak turns to intrigue. A season of grief leads to a wig, a closet, a script, cookie recipes, new friendships, and a wide-open future.
Jeanne Murray Walker, author (Geography of Memory)
Nancy King guides Laura with a steady hand in this engaging tale of loss and empowerment to which many readers will surely relate.
Kate Buckley, author (Choices)
A deeply felt and powerfully experienced tale...”
Gwen Davis, author (The Pretenders)
Not since Marilyn French's 70s novel, The Women's Room, has there been such a groundbreaking novel...As Laura takes on Bed & Breakfast duties in Santa Fe, and frees her spirit in the natural beauty of New Mexico, we want her to succeed. But how will she solve that dilemma that was presented so succinctly in Muriel's Wedding when Muriel says, "I can change..." and her mean-girl friends sniff, "You'll still be YOU"? How Laura solves this dilemma is deliciously amusing as she learns how to take on a new "persona" through theater techniques that lead to fresh assertiveness.
Dancing in the Experience Lane Book Review Blog
Discussion Questions
1. On the morning Laura’s husband Zach plans to leave her, his contradictory behavior tips her off that something is amiss. What are the clues? If their roles were reversed, do you think Zach would have noticed Laura’s behavioral changes?
2. When Laura woke up, her husband made love to her, and that afternoon, he told her that he wanted a divorce. How did you react to this contradictory behavior?
3. How would you describe Zach’s actions and his point of view? Have you ever thought your mind was made up about a major life change, but then had second thoughts?
4. What do you think about Laura’s actions in the midst of her grief and confusion? In your experience, has acting on impulse had good results?
5. Who do you think has more post-divorce options: a man or a woman? If they are both in their sixties, would that fact affect their chances for happiness?
6. How would a different era have affected this story? Could Laura have made a similar life transition in the 1900s or the 1950s?
7. Were there any characters you disliked or felt sorry for?
8. When Laura meets Bountiful Sunshine, what is her reaction? Have you ever felt drawn to someone because of their style? How would you describe yourself?
9. Who and what empowers Laura along her journey?
10. What do you think this book is saying about friendships with women? Do you agree or disagree?
11. What was your reaction to Laura’s decision to help run the Bed & Breakfast?
12. Have you ever been to New Mexico or Santa Fe, or do you live there now? If yes, How accurate do you think the descriptions of terrain, people and culture are? If no, does this story make you want to go there?
13. Do you agree that changing location can bring about renewal and healing, or is it better to stay closer to your roots and familiar territory in times of trouble?
14. What do you think the author is saying about how men and women relate?
15. What do you think of Laura’s “makeover”? If you wanted to change something about yourself, what role model would you choose? Have you ever “tried out” another personality? If yes, how did it make you feel? How did people react?
16. What was your reaction when Zach shows up and encounters Laura’s “new” identity? Have you ever encountered an old friend whom you failed to recognize?
17. Imagine the lives of the characters after the novel. How do they unfold?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Mrs. Earp: Wives & Lovers of the Earp Brothers
Sherry Monahan, 2013
Two Dot/Globe Pequot Press
176 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780762788354
Summary
When most people hear the name Earp, they think of Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan, and sometimes the lesser known James and Warren. They also had a half-brother named Newton, who lived a fairly quiet, uneventful life.
While it’s true these men made history on their own, they all had a Mrs. Earp behind them—some more than one.
One could argue some of these women helped shape the future of the Earp brothers and may have even been the fuel behind some of the fires they encountered. This book collectively traces the lives of the women who shared the title of Mrs. Earp either by name or relationship.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—the state of Illinois, USA
• Raised—the state of New Jersey
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in the state of North Carolina
Sherry Monahan is the incoming president (June 2014) of Western Writers of America and the author of several books on the Victorian West, including Mrs. Earp, California Vines, Wines & Pioneers, Taste of Tombstone, The Wicked West: Boozers, Cruisers, Gamblers and More and Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Golden Saloons.
Sherry also writes a "Frontier Fare" column for True West magazine and works as a marketing consultant and professional genealogist. As the "Genie with a Bottle," she traces the genealogy of food and wine. She calls it "Winestry" and says, "History never tasted so good."
She is currently working on Her Fateful Decision: The True Story of Ethel Hertslet (formerly, To California and Back), which is a true story of an aristocratic family who settled the rugged land of Lake County, California, in the 1880s.
She’s been on the History Channel in many shows, including Cowboys and Outlaws: Wyatt Earp, she co-hosted an episode of the Lost Worlds: Sin City of the West (Deadwood), Investigating History and two of the Wild West Tech shows. She was given a Wrangler in the 2010 Western Heritage Awards for her performance in the Cowboys and Outlaws show.
Her "Frontier Fare" column is being turned into a cookbook and will be released in 2015.
Other publications include the Tombstone Times, Tombstone Tumbleweed, Tombstone Epitaph, Arizona Highways, and other freelance works. In addition to her Victorian west books, Sherry has written three local history books on North Carolina towns. They capture the history of Apex, Cary, and Southport through 200+ images and historical details and recollections. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
Much has been written about Wyatt Earp and his last wife, Josie. Now we have a book on all the Earps’ wives, and it is a dandy. Monahan, a veteran Western writer of note, gives us delicious details of the partners of the famous Earp clan. Besides Wyatt’s three (some think four) wives, this entertaining read details Virgil, Morgan, Warren, James and their spouses.
The fleeting, semi-permanent and lasting relationships of the Earp men have been well documented and researched for this effort. The history of these young women is a broadcloth when petticoats accompanied six guns. The hardness of the times and their men speaks volumes of the Old West, and what it might be like to live it on the distaff side.
Many of the Earp women shared the name without benefit of ceremony. But they called themselves “Mrs. Earp,” thus immortalizing their own place in history. The author does an excellent job in fleshing out the Earp wives, most particularly pinning down younger brother Warren’s marriage record, little known before this book.
Monahan, a contributing editor for True West magazine, has perhaps penned her best effort in Mrs. Earp. For all who enjoy the history of the West, this book satisfies an area that is little traveled, and she does it with her usual captivating style.
Scott Dyke - Green Valley News and Sun
Discussion Questions
1. Did you feel emotions towards any of the wives? If so, which ones and why?
2. How are these Victorian women different from women today?
3. Did you have a favorite wife? If so, which one and why?
4. Do you think the author did a good job of telling the wives’ stories?
5. Did the author provide a clear direction for the book in the Introduction?
6. Would you read other books by this author? Why or why not?
7. Do you feel this book should or could be called a Western? Why or why not?
8. Would you read other books dealing with daily life and people who lived in the Victorian West? Why or why not?
9. Has this book broadened your knowledge of women who lived in the Victorian West?
10. Did you notice any similarities between the wives?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic
Hazel Gaynor, 2014
William Morrow
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062316868
Summary
A novel inspired by true events surrounding the Addergoole 14.
Members of a church parish in County Mayo, Ireland, set sail together on RMS Titanic, all hoping to find a brighter future in America. It is believed that the losses suffered by the parish in the Titanic disaster were the largest proportionate loss of life from any locality.
Seventeen year old Maggie Murphy feels bittersweet about her journey across the Atlantic Ocean. While her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in the country with Seamus, the sweetheart she is leaving behind. Maggie is one of the fortunate few passengers in steerage who survives on April 15th, 1912. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that night again.
Weaving in and out of Maggie’s voyage and Chicago, 1982, Gaynor introduces the reader to twenty-one year old Grace Butler. When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those thought to be lost long ago.
Gaynor’s poignant tale seamlessly blends fact and fiction, exploring the tragedy’s impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants. With snippets of actual Marconigrams—telegrams sent through the Marconi Company between Titanic and Carpathia and between Carpathia and the White Star Line office—The Girl Who Came Home is a story of enduring love and forgiveness, spanning seventy years, and a real source of fascination for history buffs and Titanic enthusiasts. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 16, 1971
• Where—Yorkshire, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Manchester Metropolitan University
• Award—Cecil Day Lewis Award for Emerging Writers
• Currently—lives in County Kildare, Ireland
Hazel Gaynor is an author and freelance writer in Ireland and the UK and was the recipient of the Cecil Day Lewis Award for Emerging Writers. The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic is her first novel. Her second novel, published in 2015, is A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers.
Hazel is a regular guest blogger and features writer for national Irish writing website for which she has interviewed authors such as Philippa Gregory, Sebastian Faulks, Cheryl Strayed, and Mary Beth Keane.
Hazel has appeared on TV and radio and her writing has been featured in the Irish Times and the Sunday Times Magazine. Originally from Yorkshire, England, Hazel now lives in Ireland with her husband, two young children and an accident-prone cat. (From the author.)
Visit the author's webpage.
Follow Hazel on Facebook.
Book Reviews
A beautifully imagined novel rich in historic detail and with authentic, engaging characters—I loved this book. Hazel Gaynor is an exciting new voice in historical fiction.
Kate Kerrigan, author of Ellis Island and City of Hope
Discussion Questions
1. We all know the fate of Titanic. What impact does this knowledge have on you as you read the book? How do you feel about the Ballysheen group as they leave their homes and as they board Titanic at Queenstown?
2. Kathleen Dolan is single-minded in her decision to take her niece back to America with her. Discuss Kathleen’s role in Maggie’s life and also her role in influencing the others in the Ballysheen group to travel to America.
3. Grace makes a brave decision to drop out of her college course to stay at home with her mom. Does Grace have a choice in this? How does her decision and the sacrifices she makes for her family contrast with the decisions forced upon Maggie in 1912.
4. Who are you rooting for as the drama of the events of April 14th unfold?
5. Many of the warnings and predictions of disaster which the Ballysheen group experience i.e. the reading of the tea leaves, the warning from the stranger at Queenstown, the dropped "lucky" sovereign, the "belly up" fish in the Holy Well are all based in recorded facts. The "near miss" with the moored boat in Southampton docks at the very start of Titanic’s journey is also an event which really happened. Discuss the many aspects of superstition and myth which surround Titanic.
6. Maggie and the other survivors were in their lifeboat for eight hours before they were picked up by The Carpathia and they were then on board The Carpathia for several days. Had you considered the experience of the survivors before reading the book? Are you surprised at the extent of their ordeal, after getting safely off Titanic?
7. There are several key relationships in the novel. Discuss your thoughts on the relationship between any of these: Grace and Maggie; Maggie and Seamus; Maggie and her Aunt Kathleen; Catherine Kenny and her sister Katie; Maggie, Peggy and Katie; Harry and Peggy.
8. Emigration was very common in Ireland in 1912 with many families separated by the belief and hope that there was a better standard of living to be found in America. The "American wakes" were a common occurrence across the country, marking the departure of loved ones. Have you experienced emigration in your own family? How would you feel if you had to make a similar decision to that made by the Irish emigrants who set sail on Titanic?
9. There have been many other shipping tragedies since Titanic. Cunard’s passenger liner, RMS Lusitania (travelling from New York to Liverpool), sank off the coast of Ireland in 1915 when the liner was struck by a torpedo fired from a German submarine. 1,198 civilians lost their lives in the event. In the light of many tragedies with great loss of life, why do you think people continue to be so fascinated by Titanic, a hundred years on?
10. Australian businessman, Clive Palmer, is currently starting construction on a replica of Titanic—Titanic II—which is scheduled to re-create Titanic’s maiden voyage in 2016? There have been very mixed reactions to this among relatives and descendants of Titanic’s passengers and Titanic enthusiasts. What are your thoughts on the project?
(Questions provided by publisher.)
Body and Bread
Nan Cuba, 2013
Engine Books
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781938126062
Summary
Body and Bread is a story of grief and redemption.
Years after her brother Sam’s suicide, Sarah Pelton remains unable to fully occupy her world without him. Now, while her surviving brothers prepare to sell the family’s tenant farm and a young woman’s life hangs in the balance, Sarah is forced to confront the life Sam lived and the secrets he left behind. As she assembles the artifacts of her family’s history in East Texas in the hope of discovering her own future, images from her work as an anthropologist—images of sacrifice, ritual, and rebirth—haunt her waking dreams.
In this moving debut novel, Nan Cuba unearths the power of family legacies and the indelible imprint of loss on all our lives.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—the state of Texas, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Warren Wilson College
• Awards—PEN Southwest Fiction Award
• Currently—San Antonio, Texas
Nan Cuba is the author of Body and Bread (Engine Books, 2013), winner of the PEN Southwest Award in Fiction, one of “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now” in O, Oprah’s Magazine, and a “Summer Books” choice from Huffington Post. She also co-edited Art at our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists (Trinity University Press, 2008), and published other work in such journals as Quarterly West, Columbia, Antioch Review, Harvard Review, storySouth, and Connotation Press.
As an investigative journalist, she reported on the causes of extraordinary violence in LIFE, Third Coast, and D Magazine. She was a runner-up for the Humanities Texas Individual Award and twice for the Dobie Paisano Fellowship. She received an artist residency at Fundación Valparaiso in Spain and the Imagineer Award from the Mind Science Foundation.
Cuba serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of Writers, Inc., which is a fundraising arm of the MFA Program at Warren Wilson College, is the founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary center, and writer-in-residence at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Nan on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Years after her brother Sam’s suicide, as her family prepares to sell their farm, anthropologist Sarah Pelton digs into the secrets Sam left behind while attempting to live fully without him.
Abbe Wright - O, Oprah's Magazine
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Body and Bread is a beautiful examination of family dynamics in the wake of suffering, and the ways that grief continues to shape our lives far beyond the death of a loved one.
Pam Johnston - San Antonio Express-News
Sam was her polestar, the big brother Sarah always looked up to, the one who could be a little wild, a little defiant, a little mysterious.... For Sam, however, the quest would not end until he had physically destroyed the source of his self-inflicted pain... Despite its erratic narrative arc...Cuba’s piercing coming-of-age saga vibrates with youthful yearnings. —Carol Haggas
Booklist
Like every person, every family contains contradictions, oppositions. Think of the generally quiet, sober couple who produce a jokester or chatterbox. Or the child who in church looks past her brothers’ and sisters’ bowed heads, searching for fellow doubters. Such contradictions may develop into deep conflicts or become a source of wonder, even pride. Either way, they can be a powerful force; that's just one truth examined in Nan Cuba's sweeping, carefully observed debut novel, Body and Bread.
Beth Castrodale - Small Press Picks
The plot’s literal events center on young Sarah’s gradual estrangement from her family and adult Sarah’s efforts to help her late brother’s widow and child. But as with Salinger, Cuba’s plot is almost incidental. Her writerly strengths lie in morsels of feeling perfectly put, and experiences rendered with unsettling aptness.
Emily dePrang - Texas Observer
Beautifully written, hauntingly true, expertly spanning multiple cultures, time periods and philosophies, Body and Bread is nothing short of a tour-de-force. You will be transported. You will be transformed.
David Bowles - Monitor (McAllen, Texas)
Like Munro, Cuba knows how to immerse us in the eloquent, intelligent, and unpretentious consciousness of a woman whose fidelity is to the unraveling of the many layers of truth that lay hidden, like ancient civilizations, beneath the surface of time. This truth scavenging makes Body and Bread an emotionally, ethically, and aesthetically riveting experience.
K.L. Cook, Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment
Nan Cuba’s Body and Bread could be the quintessential Texas novel for the twenty-first century. Body and Bread focuses on several generations of the Pelton family, their relationship to Texas, and those issues of family, tragedy, illness, and kinship. Like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, Cuba’s Texas is rich with history and tainted with deceptions revolving around slavery and race relations in the South.
Catherine Kasper - Texas Books in Review
Discussion Questions
1. Sarah says that her university colleagues close their office doors when she walks past, her brothers haven't spoken to her in years, and she lives by herself in a sparsely furnished house. She has no friends, and she hasn't been involved in a romantic relationship for quite a while. She dislikes freshmen and is rude when Terezie first comes to ask for help. Do these facts make Sarah an unsympathetic character?
2. At end of the first chapter, Sarah raises her hand to block out everyone in her family except Sam. Why does she do that, and why does she feel close to this brother?
3. When Sam guts the fish, his actions seem grotesque, even cruel. He says that sometimes you have to do ugly things. What does he mean, and what does this imply about him?
4. Sarah’s mother, Norine, seems strong willed and independent in chapter one when she throws the horse’s reins at the grandfather. But when she tells the story about Otis dying, she seems racist and wants Sarah to submit to gender expectations. How do you explain this change?
5. When Sarah recalls Otis telling his Master Sam stories, she says she hopes he didn't skew them according to what he thought she wanted to hear. Later, when she sits in the USO with her girlfriends and the two soldiers, she admits she’s confused about how to act with Tyrone, who is black. Is Sarah racist?
6. References to a steam engine and a fish act as motifs throughout the novel. What do these images symbolize?
7. Why is Sarah having hallucinations? What triggers them, and why do they always include a Mexicha god? How do they operate as a structuring device in the novel?
8. Sarah’s research focuses on rituals that include an iziptla. What is an iziptla, and how does it relate to Sarah and Sam?
9. What does Sarah’s life-long interest in the Mesoamerican culture, various theologies, and metaphysics reveal about her? Is it an admirable pursuit or an obsession?
10. Sarah’s father is a moralist, biblical scholar, traditionalist, and dedicated physician. How could someone with his convictions become romantically involved with Ruby? How would you describe his feelings about Sam?
11. When Sarah’s father leaned over the midden at the farm and said that if Sam hadn't reported his findings, he'd stolen from his heritage, how was that literally true?
12. Describe cultural differences between the Peltons and the Cervenkas. Why is this significant to the story?
13. Settings such as the farm creek, the Cervenkas’ house, the cotton field, the hospital anatomy lab, the coastal house, and the water therapy pool are vividly described. Why is so much attention given to the settings? How do they function as more than simple backdrops?
14. Some of the scenes between Sarah and Cornelia incorporate humor. Can you find any other places that are humorous?
15. What is the source of Sam’s ambiguity, rebelliousness, and unpredictability? Is his behavior an emotional reaction to his parentage, could he be suffering from a mood disorder, or do you detect something else?
16. When Sam’s taxi drove off the ramp, was that an accident or did he do it on purpose?
17. Why does Sarah press against Sam in the pool during water therapy? Is she sexually aroused, or are her actions a manifestation of her longing for an emotional connection? Would you describe her actions as immoral?
18. Grief and guilt are always effects of a family member’s suicide. Do Sarah’s parents and brothers each seem to feel responsible for Sam’s death? If so, how do you know?
19. What does Terezie’s lack of health insurance suggest about our country’s rising costs of medical care?
20. Do you agree with Kurt and Hugh that since Terezie has started a new family and the Peltons haven't seen her in thirty years, she does not have a claim on the grandparents’ coastal house?
21. Do you agree with Kurt that he has a moral obligation to be a steward of his inheritance, even if his commitment jeopardizes Cornelia’s health?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Herbalist
Niamh Boyce, 2013
Penguin
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780241964583
Summary
Voted Newcomer of the Year at the 2013 Irish Book Awards, The Herbalist is a vividly imagined tale of love, lust and longing set in a midlands Irish town.
A stranger claiming to be a herbal expert appears one morning in the market square and the local people are soon flocking to the exotic visitor. He seems to have a cure for everything that ails them. But as the summer progresses life becomes more complicated and dangerous for the herbalist and his devotees.
This is a rich multi-layered story of life in 1930s Ireland told through the eyes of four women, each of whose fate is changed irrevocably by the herbalist. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 11, 1971
• Where—Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, UK
• Education—B.A., National University of Ireland; M.A.,
Trinity College, Dublin
• Awards—Irish Book Awards, Newcomer of the Year (2013);
New Irish Writer of the Year (2012)
• Currently—lives in County Laois, Ireland
Visit the author's blog.
Book Reviews
Boyce’s subject matter may be dark, and she treats it with the seriousness it deserves, but she writes with a lightness of touch not often seen in the genre; this is the most entertaining yet substantial historical novel I’ve read since Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea. You may not expect a book about fear and repression to be not only enjoyable but funny; The Herbalist often is.
Irish Times
Sharply rendered and full of dark humour.
Irish Times
A devilishly good debut novel.... Boyce has plotted and executed an elegant morality tale about the inescapable strictures of women’s lives in post-independence Ireland. Her publisher describes her on the jacket as "a dazzling new voice." I cannot disagree.
Justine McCarthy - Sunday Times (UK)
A vividly imagined tale of love, lust and longing ... It is also an important book, which adds a rich fictional version of Irish history to a stark period of Irish life ... a compelling read with a cathartic ending that deserves a wide readership. It remains authentic and moving to the end.
Sara Keating - Sunday Business Post
[C]omparisons to Edna O’Brien and Pat McCabe are more than justified. That said, Boyce has a unique voice and sensibility, one that’s entirely her own.
Image Magazine
A richly layered and finely realised evocation of the closed world of a vanished Ireland, encompassing its innocent insularity and its hidden corners where sexuality and respectability collide. Niamh Boyce's compelling female characters push against the rigid social parameters of 1930s Ireland, yearning for the light of the outside world, which comes in the shape of a stranger trading in herbs, cures, complications and danger.
Dermot Bolger
A humane and gripping story of women's lives.
Patricia Ferguson
Discussion Questions
1.How do the characters develop and change over the course of the book? Which of the characters changes most?
2.Which characters voice did you enjoy, which did you dislike?
3.Did you find the characters believable?
4.The book uses multiple narrators, why do you think the author chose to rotate the point of view in this manner?
5.How did hearing from all the different characters affect your opinion of The Herbalist?
6.The main character Emily is written in the first person (I) and Sarah and Carmel are written in the third person (she). What's the effect of this device your relationship with the characters?
7.Carmel expresses the urge to step into the biblical story of Lot, to stop Lots wife before she looks back and turns into a pillar of salt. Was there a point in the story where you wanted to step in and prevent one of the characters from doing what they were about to do?
8.Emily says of the herbalist—he was the only one who liked the first impression he got of me- what do you think The Herbalist symbolised for Emily?
9.Do you think Emily made the right decision in the latter part of the book?
10.Did the plot engage you, were the plot developments unexpected or did you see them coming?
11.When you finished the book, did any of the characters stay with you? Which one, if any? Why do you think that is?
12.The characters in this novel have been described as "yearning for the light of the outside world" (Dermot Bolger)—how do you think they would fare in the contemporary world?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)