1. The pivotal moment in Lily's adolescent life occurs during an overnight stay at a friend's house. There is a dangerous ice storm, and her parents are late picking her up. That same night, Lily meets Dominic; her friend's grandfather molests her; and she is introduced to the exploits of Mary Kingsley. How are these events interconnected? How will they shape Lily's future?

2. How do Lily's relationships with the men in her life compare and contrast with that of Mary Kingsley to her father?

3. Discuss the relationship between Lily and Mary Kingsley. Is it really a relationship? How is each woman helped by her correspondence with the other?

4. What qualities do Mary and Lily share? How are they different? How are Mary and Lily each a product of their family, society, and times? How is each woman's life determined by external forces, and how does each break out of the molds thrust upon her?

5. How does Bausch explore the significance of family? How do our parents help us define who we are? How does our family shape our concept of the world?

6. What roles do prejudice and bigotry play in the novel? How do the characters of Rosa, Buddy, Manny, and Aunt Violet reflect these themes?

7. What impact does Buddy's death have on the lives of the people who lived in his house? What did he mean to the people around him?

8. One night in Paris, Mary experiences an epiphany about herself: that she is not just different from other women her age, but that she is extraordinary. "It is a distance, from the feeling that one is different from everyone to the discovery that one is extraordinary." Describe what this difference might feel like, and the ensuing responsibilities to one's self such a discovery would mean. Do you think Lily is extraordinary?

9. After waiting out a terrible storm in her cabin, and then heroically keeping a piano from crashing into anyone on deck, Mary realizes something about herself: "She looks at the place where, earlier, she lay in such terror of her own solitary little life in the immense, turning world. Without quite voicing it to herself, she understands now, finally, that the one hedge against this fear...the one weapon available to her for battling it and keeping it at bay is action, even if the action is nothing more than movement from one place to another." How is this truth played out in Mary's later life? How do fear, action, and movement occur in Lily's life?

10. Dominic's interpretation of the message of Lily's play is different from Lily's own. With whom do you agree? What is your opinion of Lily's play? Do you think it will be successful?

11. While Bausch tells Lily's story in the past tense, Mary's is told in the present. How do the different narrative techniques affect their stories? How might the novel have been different had Bausch used only past or present tense? Or if the tenses had been switched?

12. Lily writes to Mary, "Writing these small entries to you, people will say that's a conceit. For me, it's a beautiful mystery." Do you consider Bausch's narrative structure a literary conceit? How might Lily's own use of a journal dedicated to Mary feel like a mystery to her?

13. Bausch ends his narrative about Mary with her lone ascent to the summit of Mt. Cameroon -- an incredibly arduous expedition that proves, in the end, disappointing, even though it means that she is the first woman to achieve the summit. How does this climb -- and the fact that she leaves only a small paper calling card as a record of her achievement -- fit in with the rest of Mary's story, and with the novel in general?

14. Likewise, what did you think of the way Lily's story ends. How do the final scenes tie together some of the novel's themes? What do you think Lily's future holds?

15. How do you think Bausch chose the title for his novel? Do you think it is fitting?