8. ‘Fences mark one man’s crop from another but they have no power over the land itself.’ (p 160) This statement is not only a true statement about the land, but a magnificent metaphor for nationhood, and for the global effort to create artificial boundaries between cultures and races. Discuss.
9. Internment of foreign nationals as ‘aliens’ in war time is an invidious aspect of war. Discuss the imprisonment of the Japanese (such as Mr Ohno) and the Germans in this novel. For instance, did you know about the Vienna Boys’ Choir being stranded here?
10. What do you make of the character of Mr Ohno in this novel? Is his connection to Jean an infatuation or something more?
11. Robert’s decision to leave and go to war is born of failure. His confused memories of his mother and her lost babies have fuelled his desire to make a perfect life, and when he fails in farming, and in saving their baby, he can’t find solace in Jean, or in the healing power of love. Is there any hope for him?
12. Jean is a woman who desires not simply a perfect union with Robert, but wants to feel ‘at one with’ herself. This theme relates not only to her but to the people of a nation and their intimate connection to the land in which they live. Discuss.
Picador has been publishing the finest writing from across the globe since 1972. To celebrate its 40th anniversary we are reissuing a selection of classic fiction.
White Noise – Don DeLillo
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
Last Orders – Graham Swift
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Dirt Music – Tim Winton
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
The Sea – John Banville
Mother’s Milk – Edward St Aubyn
The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolaño
Room – Emma Donoghue
Exclusively for Picador Australia
That Deadman Dance – Kim Scott
Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living – Carrie Tiffany
Exclusively for Picador India
The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Divakaruni
Between the Assassinations – Aravind Adiga
Exclusively for Picador Africa (non-fiction)
Mukiwa – Peter Godwin
I Write What I Like – Steve Biko
Shirley, Goodness & Mercy – Chris van Wyk
Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (Picador 40th) Page 19