Questions for Discussion

1. Why do you think Addie chooses to surrender her son? Do you think she makes the right choice at the time?  

2. What does Roland represent to Addie? 

3. How did you react to William Glass? How does he differ from Roland? How does he change Addie’s story?

4. What is Elle’s role in the novel? Dusty’s?

5. One recurring theme is how little people actually know about one another. What critical pieces of information are these characters missing about each other? How does that missing information affect the action of the novel?

6. There are many point-of-view characters in the novel, including several minor characters. What do they add to the overarching story—what do they observe that the main characters cannot? 

7. One point of view notably missing from the book is Byrd’s. What is the effect of that omission?

8. Flash forward: where do you envision each of these characters five years after the final scene?