Reading Circle

Reading Group Discussion Guide

1. How does Linda Holeman use the setting of the mission and its inhabitants to tell the wider political and cultural story of India under British rule?

2. What does this book say about religion?

3. How important is the novel’s sense of place and how is it used to reflect Pree’s journey?

4. Is Kai struggling against British rule in India, or something else?

5. What kind of father is Reverend Fincastle to Pree?

6. What effect does the death of Pree’s mother have on Pree?

7. ‘She carried this anger over many things: the dead babies in the graves behind the mission, the ants in the flour, creeping rot on the walls, her own ill health. Anger for not being able to force me to be the kind of young woman she wishes me to be.’ Is it anger that drives Pree’s mother to madness?

8. Did you find Mrs Fincastle to be a sympathetic character?

9. Why do you think Pree’s mother commits sati? Is it out of respect for her husband?

10. Were you surprised at the ends Pree went to in her desperation to escape the mission?

11. Is this a love story? Is Pree in love with Kai, or the idea of him? What is it that she needs from him?

12. Do you think Kai loves Pree?

13. How does Pree and Kai’s relationship develop over the course of the book?

14. Is Pree a different person at the end of the novel? What has she learned?

15. Were you satisfied with the story’s conclusion?