The Crooked Heart of Mercy
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11.The chapters of the novel alternate between the narratives of Maggie and Ben. The time lines of their respective narratives do not coincide until one of the very last chapters. How do you think this relates to the development of the characters and their relationship?
12.Ben and Cola each have very complicated relationships with their father. Do you think they love him or do they simply feel obligated toward him? Why?
13.How do Ben and Maggie each figure out that they need each other to heal from their emotional trauma? Did Dr. Lambert play any part in Ben’s recovery?
14.How does Ben’s view of the physical world change when he comes out of his dissociative state? How does his attitude change? Why do you think this is?
15.At the end of the novel, are Ben and Maggie finally “made whole”?
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph © Amy Weiss / Trevillion Images
Copyright
“As I Walked Out One Evening,” copyright © 1940 and renewed 1968 by W.H. Auden; from W. H. Auden Collected Poems by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE CROOKED HEART OF MERCY. Copyright © 2016 by Billie Livingston. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Published simultaneously in Canada by Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Group, Ltd.
EPub Edition March 2016 ISBN 9780062413765
ISBN 978-0-06-241377-2
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