Reading Guide Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
- Why do you think Doris calls her red address book "a map of [her] life" (7)? Why does she want
to tell her grandniece Jenny about it?
- Look at Doris's childhood. Why does Doris's mother send her away as a child? What is Doris
exposed to during this time that she had not previously known about or experienced before? What surprised you, or what did you learn, about this time period in Sweden?
- Who is Gösta Nilsson and how does Doris meet him? Why do you think that Gösta and Doris
are able to form such a close and enduring relationship?
- Who stops Doris on the street on her way to the butcher and how does this encounter change
her life? Is the encounter a lucky one or an unfortunate one? What does Doris say "might be one
of the most degrading things you can subject someone to" (50)? Why does she put up with this
degradation herself?
- What does the book reveal about the subject of beauty? What does Doris learn about beauty during
her time as a live mannequin? Why does she say that beauty is "the most manipulative force of all" (78)? Do you agree with her? Do Doris's ideas about beauty evolve as she ages?
- Why does Doris say that separation is "the worst thing on earth" (98)? How is Doris's life shaped by
the separations that occur? What other separations occur throughout the book and how do the characters cope with them?
- What does the book seem to suggest about how well we can truly know others? How well did Jenny
know her great aunt Doris? Were you surprised by any of the details from Doris's life? What secrets do she and other characters keep?
- When Doris begins to write for a living, what does she instinctively know that people will want in
their stories? Why do she and Gösta laugh at the stories she writes for women's magazines? What do you think the author is trying to convey about storytelling and its role in our lives?
- Both Doris and Jenny are described as beautiful and had professions in modeling, yet they
admittedly lack self-confidence. What do you think has contributed to their poor self-image and their inability to see themselves as beautiful? What might have changed or prevented this? How does this compare to how the women in your own life view themselves?
- According to Doris, what happens to people who experience intense longing? Discuss the relationship between longing and memory and nostalgia.
- Over the course of their friendship, what does Gösta teach Doris about love and attraction?
Where does "the greatest comfort in life come from" (263)? Are they able to provide this comfort for one another?
- Who do Jenny and Willie set out to find at the end of Doris's life? Do you agree with their choice
to locate this person? Why or why not?
- What does Jenny learn about her own life and family from Doris's writings? Who does Doris feel
is responsible for Elise's abandonment of Jenny? What does Doris ask Jenny to do now that she has this new knowledge?
- How has Doris and Jenny's relationship evolved over the course of the novel? In what ways have
Doris and Jenny each changed or grown by the final pages?
- What does Doris's confrontation with old age and her own mortality reveal about what really matters in life? Does the book ultimately suggest what one should value most or prioritize?
Suggestions for Further Reading
Amis, Kingsley. Ending Up
Backman, Fredrik. A Man Called Ove
Bivald, Katarina. The Readers of the Broken Wheel Recommend
Ford, Richard. Let Me Be Frank With You
George, Nina. The Little Paris Bookshop
Hooper, Emma. Etta and Otto and Russell and James
Jonasson, Jonas. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Joyce, Rachel. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Patrick, Phaedra. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Richman, Alyson. The Velvet Hours
Robinson, Marilynne. Lila
Rooney, Kathleen. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Taylor, Elizabeth. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Tyler, Anne. A Spool of Blue Thread
Zevin, Gabrielle. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Mariner Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
