6. Is Marion a reliable narrator? Why or why not?
7. What role do Marion’s daydreams and her imaginary relationships play in her life? Consider this passage: “In the same way a starving man might swallow rags to stuff his belly, Marion found it was possible to fill the emptiness inside her with daydreams” (p. 158).
8. Misfortunes seem to befall those who cross Marion—Juliet, for example, found “lying unconscious in the frozen mud of Albert Park” (p. 39). How did your understanding of these events and Marion’s role in them change throughout the novel? Do you think Marion is aware of her own role in these events? Why or why not?
9. Discuss the significance of the title—is there another, more apt word for the so-called “visitors”? Before you read the book, what did “visitors” in the title invoke for you?
10. Marion’s true nature starts to come out through her interactions with the lady in the grocery story and Brendan O’Brian, the psychic medium. Were you surprised by what is revealed about her?
11. How does the reclusive and antisocial Marion manage to maintain a relationship with Lydia, and tangentially Judith, over twenty years? Why is Marion’s relationship with Lydia so important and unique to Marion?
12. What prevents Marion from helping Violetta and the other visitors? Is Marion a heroine, villain, or accomplice?
13. Whose transgressions are worse: John’s or Marion’s? Why?
14. Does Marion get what she deserves in the end? Why or why not? How is she transformed from the beginning of the novel?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. The dilapidated mansion of Grange Road and eccentric cast of characters would make a fascinating film adaptation, in the vein of the infamous Grey Gardens documentary. Who would you cast as John, Marion, Judith, and the other characters in the film version of The Visitors?
2. The novel is told through the eyes of Marion Zetland. How would it be different if the story was told from John’s, Judith’s, or Sonya’s perspective? Reimagine the novel’s telling with your book club; discuss how key events would change when told from the other character’s points-of-view.
3. The Visitors is Catherine Burns’s first novel. Learn more about the author by following her on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/cburnsbooks/) and Twitter ( https://twitter.com/c_burnzi).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Manchester, CATHERINE BURNS is a graduate of Trinity College, University of Cambridge. She worked as a bond trader in London before studying at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and teaching film theory at the University of Salford. The Visitors is her debut novel.
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Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Catherine-Burns
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Scout Press
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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.
Copyright © 2017 by Catherine Burns
Originally published in Great Britain in 2017 by Legend Press Ltd.
Published by arrangement with Legend Press Ltd.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scout Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Scout Press hardcover edition September 2017
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Jacket design by Lisa Litwack
Jacket photograph by Hilary Walker/ Millennium Images Ltd
Author photograph by Mark Frith Photography
Interior design by Jaime Putorti
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burns, Catherine, 1968- author.
Title: The visitors / Catherine Burns.
Description: First edition. | New York : Scout Press, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017005683 (print) | LCCN 2017029050 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501164033 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501164019 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501164026 (trade paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Brothers and sisters—Fiction. | Single women—Fiction. | Family secrets—Fiction. | Psychological fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Suspense. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction. | Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PR6102.U7624 (ebook) | LCC PR6102.U7624 V57 2017 (print) | DDC 823/.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017005683
ISBN 978-1-5011-6401-9
ISBN 978-1-5011-6403-3 (ebook)
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