Introduction

A haunting, evocative novel about a woman who might have to face the disturbing truth about her own daughter.

Hanna and Joe send their awkward daughter Dawn off to college hoping that she will finally "come into her own." When she brings her new boyfriend, Rud, to her sister's wedding, her parents try to suppress their troubling impressions of him for Dawn's sake. Not long after, Hanna and Joe suffer a savage attack at home, resulting in Joe's death and Hanna's severe injury and memory loss.

Rud is convicted of the crime, and the community speculates that Dawn may also have been involved. When Rud wins an appeal and Dawn returns to live in the family home, Hanna resolves to recall that traumatic night so she can testify in the retrial, exonerate her daughter, and keep her husband's murderer in jail.

But as those memories resurface, Hanna faces the question of whether she knows her own daughter-and whether she ever did.

Editorial Review

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Excerpt

The detective told us, “Mr. Petty says something of his is missing, too. Apparently, his camera was stolen along with all your property.” His tone made it clear that he did not believe what Rud had told him. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. How would you characterize the marriage between Hanna and Joe?

2. Throughout the novel, Joe does challenge Hanna somewhat about her “lacy eye”; should he have pushed her further to challenge it more in herself?

3. Do you blame Hanna for not acknowledging the truth sooner – for practicing “lacy eye”?

4. Why do you believe Hanna does practice “lacy eye”? What does she gain by doing so? What does she lose?

5. Was Claire’s confrontation of Hanna about Dawn’s role in the attacks a breach of friendship, or an act of friendship?

6. Among other things, Hanna feels guilty about the attacks. To what extent, if any, do you believe that those feelings are justified?

7. To what degree, if any, is Hanna complicit in Rud Petty’s plot to keep her from testifying in the new trial by frightening or even killing her?

8. Do you believe that Hanna ever actually considered Emmett to be the culprit in either the dog’s poisoning or the attack against her and Joe?

9. The others in the family think that Rud was using Dawn to gain access to money he believed she had. Dawn believed he was in love with her. How would you characterize Rud and his motivations?

10. What role does money and socioeconomic status play in the events of the novel?

11. Hanna speculates about this question herself, but never quite comes up with an answer: Why do you think Dawn participated in the attack against her parents? Do you think there any justification for her to do so?

12. How should a parent behave toward a child who has done such a thing?

13. To what extent, if any, do you think Hanna’s experience with her parents influenced the tragedy that occurred within her own family years later?

14. The relationship between Hanna and the family dog, Abby, is one of mutual affection and unconditional love. To what extent is that similar to or different from the relationship between Hanna and Dawn? Hanna and Iris? Parents and children in general?

15. Do you think Hanna did the right thing in acquiescing to Iris’s insistence that she never see Dawn again, if she wanted to maintain a relationship with her other daughter and her daughter’s family?

16. From what you know of Dawn, do you think she is redeemable? Do you think Hanna believes she is? What do you imagine the rest of Dawn’s life will be like, especially if and when she is ever released from prison?

17. The epigraph of the novel, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, is “Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest.” Do you agree?

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by cpapuga (see profile) 03/09/16

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»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Chicago Tribune Review
»	Publisher's Weekly Review
»	Times Union Review

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by cpapuga (see profile) 03/09/16

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