Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

1. Which character did you relate to, or empathize with, the most?
2. What did you think of the use of Dao's voice as a plot device?
3. How do the varied narrative techniques the author employs impact the novel? Why do you think the author chose this method of storytelling?
4. Anh's decision to tell the immigration office, "It's just us," means the siblings don't make it to the United States and are relegated to life in England. What alternate fates do you imagine for Anh, Minh and Thanh, had they gone to the US?
5. During a pivotal conversation with Tom, Anh declares "It doesn't feel right to enjoy myself while they're buried in some unknown plot in Hong Kong." And Tom "did not balk, just said, "You know it's not your fault though, right?" How does this acknowledgement of "her fears and the grief and the guilt that he saw and Hoang lodged in every corner of her mind" allow her to move forward?
6. What do Jane's mental health struggles and engagement with her mother's family history reveal about the spoken and unspoken transmission of legacies through generations?
7. What does the novel expose about history and war by highlighting The US military's operations in Vietnam including Operation Wandering Souls and Margaret Thatcher's policies toward refugees from Vietnam?
8. How are the ways the siblings grapple with their profound loss the same and different?
9. How does the book's title work in relation to the book's contents? If you could give the book a new title, what would it be?
10. What does Jane mean when she writes "We fill in the gaps. We find stories in every little moment and gather them up readily. We imagine that the unknown isn't the worst scenario and we try to make sense of the senseless. We look for the silver linings and the whys and what-if and what-should-have-beens. We try to solve the puzzle, pieces scattered through time and space and the deepest corners of our memories?"

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