All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

About the Book

As unusual as its title, All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka is a deeply moving, darkly comic, and unforgettable debut novel that explores the ways in which we destroy those we love, try to hide in the past and memory, and then must lay ourselves bare in order to rebuild our lives. The difficulties of family are explored in brilliantly imaginative detail through the unique voice of Burt Hecker: a sixty-three-year-old medieval re-enactor who, after abandoning the female chant workshop he has led to Germany, sets off on a quest to reunite with his estranged son, Tristan, in Prague.


Reader's Guide

1. Fathers are missing throughout the novel, and missing in particularly violent ways: Anna’s father and husband kill themselves; Burt’s father may have raped his mother. What does it mean that the one father who is present, Burt, tries to disappear into the past?
2. What do you think turns Anna Bibko into a woman obsessed with her family’s people, the Lemkos, and particularly with the crimes against them? How is this like or unlike Burt’s obsession with a world far before his own time?
3. Why do you think the author chose Burt as a first-person narrator? What might have the story been like if one of the other characters had told Burt’s tale? What does this suggest about the trustworthiness of Burt’s voice?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.