Mapping the Edge
A Novel
by Sarah Dunant
List Price: $12.95
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0375758615
Publisher: Random House
Anna, a self-sufficient and reliable single mother, packs her bags one day for a short vacation to Italy. She leaves her beloved daughter at home in London with good friends. When Anna doesn’t return, everyone begins to make excuses, until the likelihood that she might not come back at all becomes chillingly clear. In this dazzling work of suspense, Sarah Dunant interweaves parallel narratives that are stretched taut with tension even as they raise difficult questions about love, trust, and accountability. We are challenged, unnerved, and ultimately exhilarated as Dunant redefines the boundaries of the psychological thriller.
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1. Do you think the book’s speculative agenda, its parallel narratives, explore a disquiet particularly characteristic of midlife? Is it an unrest limited to middle age? Why or why not?
2. Discuss Dunant’s portrayal of Anna’s unconventional "family." Is it a sufficient replacement for a typical nuclear family, in your opinion? What did you make of the rivalry between Estella and Paul, or that between Anna and Michael, for that matter? How does the childhood loss of her own mother inform Estella’s feelings for Lily?
3. How does the disingenuous nature of Anna’s affair with the art dealer heighten its intensity, for both? What is Dunant suggesting about the nature of sexual intimacy and personal trust?
4. Do you think Dunant succeeds in her divergent storytelling? How do differing versions of the truth work to subvert the form of the typical thriller? How does the double plot serve as a metaphor for the duality of Anna’s desires, or those of anyone? How does Dunant resolve this dilemma, in your opinion? Does she?
5. Discuss Dunant’s comparison of the physical connection between a mother and child to that of a woman and her lover. How are the varieties of love and desire intertwined here--for better and for worse?
6. Discuss the intense, visceral love Anna and Lily feel for one another. According to Dunant, to what extent can Anna have a life separate from Lily?
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"Very smart . . . a riveting thriller."
—The Baltimore Sun
"[Dunant] plots with remarkable intricacy [and] is a master at creating anxiety and mystery."
—The Washington Post
"Thoroughly satisfying . . . departs from the usual thriller formula . . . but it contains its own full array of surprises. . . . Dunant’s feel for the geography of bed and willing flesh is a pleasure. . . . In moments . . . that delve into the subtleties and varieties of love and desire, Dunant emerges as a shrewd observer."
—The New York Times Book Review
"What if we cannot know even those we love best? In Mapping the Edge, Sarah Dunant writes with wonderful intelligence about the dark intricacies of motherhood, friendship, love, and obsession. A brilliantly plotted, ruthlessly intelligent, and highly readable novel."
—Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture
