The Other Side of the World Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Immigration to Australia and our BookBrowse Review of The Other Side of the World.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. "Is it easier to love a child, she wonders, than it is to love a wife?" (pg. 150) How do you think Henry and Charlotte's relationship has been changed by the arrival of children? How might Charlotte's sense of failure as a mother have affected her relationship with Henry?
2. Henry's ethnicity is never discussed directly between the couple. Why do you think this is? Do you think Charlotte has any understanding of Henry's experience as an Anglo-Indian in England, and then in Australia?
3. The novel opens with the epigraph, "Nostalgia . . . is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed." (Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia). Whether as migrants or just looking back over our lives, how clearly do we see past times and places? How does this affect our attitude towards the present? For what do you feel nostalgic?

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