Reader's Guide

Reading group guides are intended to enhance conversation not confine it. Please do not allow these suggested questions to limit your group's discussion.

1. Why did Megan want to go to California? Did the trip materialize as she would have wanted it?

2. Why didn’t Megan report Edwin's behavior to others in the family/friend group?

3. Is there a parallel between Megan and Lainy's rescue of Sam and Kathin assisting slaves to freedom? Or, was the rescue of Sam more that of saving a personal friend?

4. Do you agree with the author that assuming responsibility for a younger sibling expresses love?

5. Was Edwin's punishment justified or overdone?

6. What do you think about Miss Hilda kicking the man out of her blacksmith shop?

7. Which of the characters changes the most over the course of the novel? Who do you think changes the least? Why?

8. Do you think the males developed any additional respect for the women in the story as a result of the care they received? Or did they consider it their due.

9. Considering the horror witnessed and experienced by Megan, would you expect her to have post-traumatic stress disorder? Would she later experience depression or elation on recollection of these events?

10. Was Sybil Mercer wrong in charging board to those with money when the number needing board far exceeded their resources? How else might she have prioritized the use of her resources? Don't goods in scarce demand generally go to the highest bidder? Why did the others feel her actions were a form of exploitation?

11. Why do you think the author chose to write about women when they did not materially affect the outcome of the war?

12. Was the war all that it was about?

1. Did it bother you that the author used The Poetess's true name, Psappha, rather than the commonly accepted Sappho?

2. How does Psappha's first impression of Gongyla differ from yours?

3. Did Psappha love Kerkolos? What makes you think so?

4. After Kerkolos' death, Psappha chooses a new path. Could she have chosen differently? If so, what might have been the outcome?

5. How would you define Psappha's relationship with Lycos? In what ways are they alike? Other than the obvious matter of gender, in what ways are they different?

13. Has your thinking or knowledge about Sappho changed because of this book? If so, how? Why?

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