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Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Garnering rave reviews coast-to-coast,
A Constellation of Vital
Phenomena is an unforgettable debut novel that deftly explores
the human cost of warand
the healing power of hope.
In this haunting masterwork, award-winning
author Anthony
Marra transports us to a snow-covered
village in Chechnya.
It is 2004, and an eight-year-old
girl has just watched Russian
soldiers abduct her father and set fire to her house in the
middle of the night. Accused of aiding Chechen rebels, her
father has suffered the brutality of the Feds before. Fearing
the worst, their lifelong neighbor Akhmed rescues the girl
and seeks refuge at the bombed-out
hospital run by Sonja, a
brilliant but tough-as-nails
female surgeon. Resistant at first,
the doctor soon discovers that her new visitors may hold the
key to finding her missing sister. Over the course of five extraordinary
days, their worlds will unravel in unimaginable
ways, culminating in a breathtaking, ultimately affirming
turn of fate.
This guide is designed to enrich your discussion of A Constellation
of Vital Phenomena. We hope that the following
questions will enhance your reading group's discussion of this
stirring meditation on loss and redemption.
Questions and Topics for Discussion
Guide written by Amy Clements.
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Hogarth Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
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