1. The novel begins with an attention-grabbing opening line: "To this day I wonder if Danny knew he was going to die." How do you respond to this as an opening? What expectations about the novel does it establish? What does it suggest about the eventual arc of the story?

2. What do you think about Danny's behavior during the accident? Did he want to die? What does Leo think?

3. Most people, if they think of Cambridge at all, think of it as the home of Harvard and MIT. How is this story informed and colored by its setting in a very different kind of Cambridge? How important is the setting to the story?

4. Danny is a student at an elite school who comes from a working class background. Leo comes from a family that formerly had money but has fallen on hard times. What role does class play in this novel? In what ways does it correlate or fail to correlate with education?

5. Many of the characters in this book exhibit a special skill or talent: Leo plays the violin, Danny is a hockey star, Kilroy plays chess, Leo's father is an inventor, her mother a singer. How are the characters revealed through their particular enthusiasms? How do their activities shape your perception of them?

6. Many of these characters feel they lack control over their own lives. To what extent is this true and to what extent is it rooted in their own perceptions? What are some of their strategies for compensating for this lack (or perceived lack) of control? At first glance Kilroy, obsessed with a game of strategy and domination, might seem to fall into this category; to what extent does he or does he not?

7. Do Leo's obstetrician, Dr. Early, and her music teacher, Ettore, serve as surrogate parents for her? What do they offer her that her own parents cannot?

8. What do you think about Leo's decision to re-establish contact with Danny's family? Is it selfish on her part? What are her expectations of this move? How are they met or not met? How does it affect the McPhees?

9. What is the function of the relationship between Lydia and Po in the story? How does their easy rapport contrast with the relationships of the other characters? How does it contrast with their own difficulties communicating with others?

10. According to Danny, Kilroy "knows something big." What do you think this big thing is that Kilroy knows? Is it the lack of this knowledge that makes Danny unhappy? By the end of the book, does Leo also know this "big thing"?