1. Discuss the title of the book. What are all the possible applications of the word crossed to the events and characters of the story?

2. Whom do you consider the most sympathetic character in the story? Why?

3. Which character behaves the most honorably throughout? Why?

4. If you were to find yourself in this story, which of the five main characters would you most resemble in outlook and action? (This might be a different response than questions 2 or 3.)

5. Discuss the differences of the two narrators --- in their character and background; their morality and values and belief-systems; their story-telling styles.

6. Discuss Dandolo's comments near the end of the book about the fall of empires. Does this seem like a purely historical observation, or are there possible implications about today's world as well?

7. Discuss Jamila's dilemma of having to choose whether she will remain with a man she loves or return to her community. What do you think of the choice she makes, and what choice would you make in her position?

8. What do you think is implied by the end of the epilogue: that the Briton has found a way to join the Jewish community, or that he and Jamila have gone off on their own?

9. There are strong parallels between the Fourth Crusade and the current situation in Iraq, but the author emphasizes these parallels infrequently in the text itself. How often, if ever, did such parallels occur to you as you were reading?

10. Who is a better ruler, Dandolo or Boniface? Why?