For Bookclubs

1. Do you identify with how Nathan reacts to the death of his wife? How might you have reacted differently?

2. How does Nathan relate to each of his daughters? What do you think the issues with each one are, and how are they affected by their relationship to their father?

3. Maria’s situation is very different from Nathan’s. What are your initial impressions of her? Does she have your sympathy?

4. Do you think Nathan’s in-laws are justified in their suggestion to take the girls? Why or why not?

5. Do you think Laura and Nathan had a good marriage? Why or why not?

6. How does Maria benefit and grow from her relationship with the Wests? How do they benefit from their relationship with her?

7. Do you think Maria was justified in slapping Alexa? Are you sympathetic to Alexa?

8. Do you think Maria should have told the police that she recognized her brother in the photos? Why do you think she didn’t?

9. How do you think Maria should have responded when her brother approaches her? Could anything have changed the outcome?

10. Do you agree with Maria’s decision to return to Bosnia?

11. How does the epilogue affect your perception of the story?

1. Are you sympathetic with Heather’s situation at the beginning of the story? Do you feel adoption was her best choice? Why do you think she chose Grace as the adoptive mother?

2. Who do you empathize with more, Heather or Grace? Why?

3. What are the difficulties and challenges in the women’s relationship, throughout the story? How do they both change? What do you think they could have done differently, to make things easier between them?

4. Do you think Heather was justified in reconsidering the terms of the adoption, and making it open? What about Grace’s reaction?

5. How do both Heather and Grace show their love for Isaac? What is different about it?

6. How are Heather’s three daughters and her husband Kevin affected by the choices she makes—first to give Isaac up for adoption, and then to make the adoption open? Do you think Heather is aware of how her actions have affected her family?

7. How does Grace’s cancer diagnosis change the women’s relationship? Would you call them friends by the end of the story? Why or why not?

8. Do you think Heather was right in not taking Isaac back?

9. How do you see Stella’s role in the story?

10. What would you do in this situation, if you were Heather? If you were Grace?

1. Who do you identify with more at the start of the story, Rebecca or Tessa? Why?

2. Do you think Rebecca and Tessa make unlikely friends? Why or why not? Would they have become friends back in New York?

3. Both women struggle in some way to relate positively to their children. Why do you think this is the case? Do you relate to this?

4. Tessa is drawn to Rebecca’s glamour, but senses something dark beneath it. How do you think she should have responded as a friend?

5. How did the women’s relationships with their husbands affect their lives and friendship?

6. What role do the children play in the story? Which child did you empathize with the most and why?

7. Do you think it was fair and/or right of Rebecca to ask Tessa to watch her children while she was in rehab?

8. Could the tragedy at the end of the story been avoided? How?

9. At the end of the book, Rebecca and Tessa both have to learn to forgive themselves for their parts in what happened. Do you think this is important in life? Why or why not?

1. Do you sympathize with Beth at the start of the story? Do you agree with her feeling that people tend to make judgments when social services become involved?

2. Do you think Ally’s motivations were right in wanting to foster?

3. How do Beth and Ally’s ideas about motherhood differ? How are they the same?

4. Do you think Susan acted correctly towards Beth? Why or why not?

5. Do you relate to Ally’s tentativeness with Dylan at the start of him living with them? How would you feel in that situation?

6. When Josh and Emma get into trouble, Ally feels it reflects on her as a mother. Is that an understandable feeling? Do you, if you’re a mother, struggle with this?

7. Do you think Dylan should have stayed with Ally and her family after Emma’s suicide attempt?

8. How does Dylan help Ally?

9. How do Beth and Ally help each other?

1.) How do you think you would react if you were Libby, when Simon Baum first
approaches her? With belief or disbelief? Defensive or understanding—or maybe a
bit of both? Or something else?
2.) Why do you think Libby’s father reacts the way he does at the start, refusing to talk
about it?
3.) How do the first chapters in Hans Brenner’s point of view change or affect the way
you see Leo Weiss as an old man?
4.) Do you think Libby was right in showing Simon the ring she found?
5.) Do you think Hans is being deliberately obtuse or is he truly naïve, when he first
arrives at Sobibor? Should he have brought Anni?
6.) Do you think the way Lucas and Em respond to the news about their grandfather is
understandable? How are they different?
7.) Does the media storm following Libby’s father’s case seem justified? What should or
could she have done differently?
8.) What do you think was the real issue between Tim and Libby and the way they
communicated?
9.) Was Hans right to feel complicit in the murder of Daniel Weiss?
10.) If you had been in Hans Brenner’s situation, what do you think you would
have done throughout the story?
11.) How does Libby come to a better understanding of her father when they
travel to Germany?
12.) Do you think the verdict in his trial was fair?