Jasper Fforde
Three separate interviews in which Jasper Fforde discusses the Thursday Next series, his Nursery Crime novels and Shades of Grey, the first in a trilogy set in a future world recognizable as our own - but only just.
Abraham Verghese
An interview with Abraham Verghese about his life and writing and in particular about his extraordinary 2009 novel Cutting for Stone, set in 1960s and '70s Ethiopia and 1980s New York.
Martha A Sandweiss
An interview with Martha Sandweiss in which she discusses her book Passing Strange, a biography of Clarence King who lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter named James Todd, married to Ada with whom he had five children.
Amy Greene
Amy Greene talks about her first novel, Bloodroot, which brings her native Appalachia—and the faith and fury of its people—to rich and vivid life.
Caution! It is likely that the following questions will reveal, or at least allude to, key plot details. Therefore, if you haven’t yet read this book, but are planning on doing so, you may wish to proceed with caution to avoid spoiling your later enjoyment.
How does Diane Ackerman's background as a naturalist and a poet inform
her telling of this slice of history? Would a historian of World War II have
told it differently, and, if so, what might have been left out?
Reviews have compared this book to Schindler's List and Hotel
Rwanda. How would you compare them?
Did this book give you a different impression of Poland during World War
II than you had before?
Can you imagine yourself in the same circumstances as Jan and Antonina?
What would you have done?
How would you describe Antonina's relation to animals? To her husband?
How does she navigate the various relationships in the book, given the
extreme circumstances? Is her default position one of trust or distrust?
Do people have a "sixth sense" and how does it relate to "animal
instinct"?
Some might judge Jan and Antonina guilty of anthropomorphizing animals
and nature. Would you? Why or why not?
Can nature be savage or kind–or can only humans embody those qualities?
As science and the study of animal behavior and communication teach us more
and more about the commonalities between animals and humans, is there still
any dividing line between the human and the animal world? If so, how would
you describe it?
The Nazis had a passion for animals and the natural world. How could
Nazi ideology embrace both a love of nature and the mass murder of human
beings?
The drive to "rewrite the genetic code of the entire planet" is not
distinct to Nazism. What similar efforts are alive today? Are there lessons
in Jan and Antonina's story for evaluating the benefits and dangers of
trying to modify or improve upon nature? Do you see any connection between
this story of more than sixty years ago and contemporary environmental
issues?
Genetic engineering of foodstuffs is highly contentious. So are
various reproductive technologies that are now common, such as selecting
for–or against–various characteristics when choosing from sperm or egg
banks. How would various characters in this book have approached these
loaded issues?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Norton.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies—of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss—that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.
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When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, quirky, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in Norfolk. But when a child's bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, and Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help, Ruth finds herself in...
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The Zookeeper's Wife
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