All the Water in the World
Page 28
6.Eve is a single mother. Why has she kept Maddy’s father, Antonio, away from Maddy? Why is Maddy so interested in building a relationship with him?
7.Describe the relationship Maddy and Antonio develop over email. What’s the tone of their exchange? What does each choose to reveal and to keep private?
8.Consider Maddy’s relationship with Robin, her mother’s partner. What role does he play in her life, and in Eve’s?
9.Through her friendship with Jack, Maddy is drawn to climate-change activism. What compels her about the issue? Does she see it differently than other sixteen-year-olds do?
10.Why is it important that Jack and Maddy knew each other as children? How does their dynamic change over the course of her illness?
11.Maddy has always loved a statue called Serenity in Meridian Hill Park. What is it about this figure that appeals to her? Why does she end up being inspired to use the statue in her art?
12.Religion and spirituality are another strong theme in All the Water in the World. Why is Maddy looking for meaning? What does Maddy enjoy about her grandparents’ church? After all her questioning, does she ever come to a conclusion about spirituality?
13.Why does Eve go to London? Is she being honest with herself about her motivations? Why does she bring her young colleague Alison? What does she see in Alison that others don’t?
14.When Eve and Antonio try to recall a difficult conversation of many years’ past, they have very different memories of it. What does that reveal about time and the nature of memory? If they’d understood each other better then, what might have happened?
15.How does Eve’s trip to London complicate her relationship with Robin? With Maddy’s voice in her head, how does she feel about herself afterward?
16.Over the course of the book, how does your understanding of Eve and Maddy’s relationship change? Does it depend on who’s narrating? Can you point to an example?
17.When did you realize what the outcome of Maddy’s treatment was? How and why does the author conceal this?
18.At the end of the novel, as Eve and Maddy’s two voices come together, how did you understand their relationship, their ability to communicate with each other, and their love? What does Maddy mean by “anything good” (page 342), and why is she determined to communicate that to Eve?
Enhance Your Book Club
1.Maddy loves Fallingwater, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. If there’s one close to you, visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house and journal about your trip.
2.Read other books with characters facing illness, like John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything, and Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing.
3.Read other novels about strong mother-daughter relationships like Elizabeth Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anne Tyler’s Clock Dance, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, and Ann Patchett’s Patron Saint of Liars.
4.For more information about Karen Raney and All the Water in the World, visit karenraney.com.
About the Author
© SIMON WELLER
Karen Raney recently gained an MA in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, with a distinction and was awarded the 2017 Pat Kavanagh Prize for All the Water in the World when the novel was still a work in progress. Born in Schenectady, New York, Raney attended Oberlin College, graduated from Duke University, and worked as a nurse before moving to London to study art. She lives in London and teaches at the University of East London.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018053825
ISBN 978-1-9821-0869-4978-1-9821-3005-3
ISBN 978-1-9821-0871-7 (ebook)