1. Although Cate speaks positively about Maureen in early chapters, it becomes clear that there is some disconnect in their relationship and she has to start selling herself on the romance. Where did you notice this happening?

2. Discuss Cate’s friendship with Neale as compared to her relationships with Maureen and Dana beyond two being lovers, one a friend.

3. Cate would probably describe her relationship with Joe as an intergenerational friendship. What value do you think this friendship holds for each of them?

4. Graham is an “open-ended presence” (p. 25) both in Cate’s apartment and in her life. They have an unusual arrangement. How does it change through the course of the novel?

5. How are all of Cate’s relationships a way of building a family?

6. The author intersperses Cate’s perspective with Nathan’s point of view. What does this add to the narrative?

7. Cate comes to Neale’s rescue, but the experience leaves her isolated, and she realizes that in the aftermath “she has arrived on another side of everything. No one is over here with her” (p. 155). Why do you think she feels alone? Does she also, as Dana suggests, feel powerful? How do you think you would feel in her situation?

8. If you came upon a friend in the same situation, do you think you’d jump in to stop the assailant?

9. How does the incident in the kitchen change Neale and Cate’s relationship?

10. A theme of this novel considers what we owe to the people who have cared for us. Discuss how this theme plays out throughout the narrative.

11. At the end, Cate has pulled off the highway. What direction do you think her life will take from here?

12. Do you think she’s a slightly different person from who she is at the start of the book?