For Book Clubs
Thank you for choosing The Distant Dead as your book club read. The following are some thoughts and questions to help guide your discussion.
Also, I would be happy to drop by (physically or virtually, depending on geography) to discuss the book and answer any questions. You can contact me directly by email to arrange a time, or, if your book club is part of the Novel Network (a free service that connects book clubs with authors), you can schedule a visit through them. Click here to learn more about the Novel Network or schedule a visit if your club is already a member.
Book Club Discussion Guide
1. The author creates a strong sense of place in The Distant Dead. How does the desert setting shape the narrative? How does it echo the internal conflicts of the characters?
2. There is also a strong sense of history in the book, ranging from Lovelock’s glory days as a stop on the California Trail all the way back to the First People, fifteen thousand years ago. What role do you think history, both recent and ancient, plays in the narrative? How does the prologue, in particular, influence the narrative and telegraph its overarching themes?
3. Adam Merkel and Nora’s father are struggling with the same guilt: each man’s addiction led him to accidentally cause the death of his son. Discuss how each man bore that burden, and the choice each ultimately made to live or to die. Whose approach do you find more sympathetic? How would you describe their choices? Brave? Cowardly? Understandable? Repellent? How do you think Nora and Sal feel about those choices, in the end?
4. Addiction is a major theme of the book, and several characters offer differing opinions on whether addiction is a disease, a choice, or some combination of the two. Discuss those opinions, and why each character might have the opinions he or she has based on their experiences. Did any character change their view by the end of the book?
5. In many ways, the book is a meditation on grief. Every character has lost a loved one, in many cases a close family member. Discuss how the characters cope with their loss. Are there similarities? Differences? What role does regret play? Anger? How about a sense of duty, or a debt owed? By the end of the book, have any of the characters arrived in a healthier place as they mourn their dead?
6. Lucas, Adam Merkel’s protégé, makes a number of questionable decisions throughout the book. Did you find any of those decisions understandable, or relatable? How do you feel about him as a character? Did that feeling change over the course of the story?
7. Sal wants to be a “watcher,” a caretaker of stories belonging to the dead. It’s a solemn responsibility, because the only way the dead can truly reach the living is through their stories, and once the stories are lost, the dead are lost, too. But is Sal a watcher, in the end? Or does he play a different role in curating the story of Adam Merkel? Are other characters in the book watchers? What stories do they preserve?
8. Gideon Prentiss is a complicated figure, capable of great cruelty and violence and, in his own way, deep love and loyalty. How did you feel about him? How did you feel about his killing Ezra? How would you describe his and Sal’s relationship at the end of the book? Do you think Gideon will be a good influence on Sal, or a bad one?
9. Almost everything in the book happens in the two small towns of Lovelock and Marzen, and one of its themes is how a small town can be a prison for some and a haven for others. Do you think the author makes a stronger case for one perspective than the other? Is she fair in her presentation of these two opposing views? What do you, personally, think about life in a small town: does it appeal to you, or would you find it stifling?
10. Imagine what comes next for these characters, after the final chapter. Does the author give any clues? What does each character deserve to have happen to them, and why? What do you hope for them?