1. The night he dies, Jia’s grandfather tells her: “It will be up to you now to make sense of this mess.” How do those words affect her and shape her relationships with her family members? How do those relationships change over the course of the novel, and why?

2. Discuss Jia’s relationship with Jenny. Why do you think they have a special connection? How does it compare to Jia’s complicated relationship with her own mother?

3. Jia feels “Korean American, down to the marrow of her bones. Her parents’ homeland shaped her as much as the concrete jungle of New York City did.” What is Jia’s relationship to her Korean American identity? How does it compare and contrast to the Park siblings’? How are Jia’s family and the Park family similar and different?

4. Why is Jia so obsessed with getting her dream Birkin bag? What does the bag represent for her? Do you think she’ll eventually get one --- and, if so, will it be the one she always thought she wanted?

5. Nidhi and Elisa have known Jia since they were girls. Why are their friendships with Jia so strong? How do Jia’s friends keep her grounded?

6. Gail tells Jia: “A lot of people believe that the opposite of anxiety is calm. Finding peace. I believe the opposite of anxiety is trust.” What role does anxiety play in Jia’s life? Did you see moments in the story where trust counteracted it?

7. Jia loves to travel, but she reflects that “her imagination often set her up for disappointment. She blamed social media for a lot of it. All the curated pictures and endless hype fueled impossible expectations…. No city could possibly be that exciting, no vignette quite so perfect.” Have you experienced something similar? If so, how might you counteract that?

8. What are the dynamics between Sora, Suzy and Minsoo, and how do they evolve over the course of the novel? Did you have a favorite character among the three siblings?

9. Jia reflects: “Loving someone unconditionally was an act of idiocy. No one in the world should be allowed to do or say whatever they wanted to someone and then expect forgiveness.” Do you agree with her? Do you think Seven Park deserves unconditional love and/or forgiveness from his family? Why or why not?

10. Jenny tells Jia: “I decided to stop searching for the love of my life. And I finally realized that it was me, all along. Because once I began to love myself, I found the forgiveness I desperately sought and the peace I greatly needed.” What do you think it means to be the love of your own life? How might that affect romantic and familial relationships and how you see yourself within them?

11. As narrator, Jenny claims: “This is a story of lies. Not just the lies we tell one another but the lies we tell ourselves.” What do you think she means? Discuss Jenny’s decision to fake her death and lie about it, even to her children. She also lies about her terminal cancer diagnosis. Why do you think she makes those choices? Do you sympathize with her? Are there times when lying can be the right thing to do?

12. Were you surprised that Jenny was the secret narrator? Did that revelation change your understanding of her character? If so, how?

13. Why do you think Jia decides to accept Jenny’s offer to be the corporate counsel of Mirae when she always thought she wanted to be Whitman Volker’s next Emily Bhatia? How might she find a better work/life balance while still fulfilling her ambition? Do you think both are possible?

14. Why are Jia and Darius drawn to each other? Do you think they will end up together?

15. Jenny tells Jia: “I wish they could see that all I want for them is the space to dream…. Dreaming is essential to life. If we cannot dream, we cannot believe. If we cannot believe, we cannot trust. If we cannot trust, then we cannot live a life of meaning.” What do you think she means? What do you think dreaming looks like for Jenny’s children? For Jia? What might the future hold for them?