1. Between the ages of seven and ten, Laurie Sandell drew hundreds of cartoons about her father, which she presented to him as gifts. How much did she seem to know about him back then?

2. How would you describe Laurie’s early relationship with her father? What went wrong when she turned 12?

3. Laurie grew up in a home where she was encouraged to keep her family’s secrets. Do you think that was a reasonable expectation? What kind of secrets were you asked to keep when you were growing up?

4. How much do you think Laurie’s mother knew about her husband’s actions? What is a wife’s responsibility when it comes to the actions of her partner?

5. While traveling around the world, Laurie had some experiences that were out of character for her: a lesbian fling, giving her passport to a stranger, stripping in Tokyo. What do you think motivated these actions? If you had grown up the way Laurie did, might you have found yourself in similar circumstances?

6. In Part II of the book, Laurie gets a job interviewing celebrities at a top women’s magazine. Why do you think she is so good at getting famous people to open up to her?

7. Why was Laurie so dazzled by the celebrities she met? More broadly, why is our society so interested in celebrities?

8. Laurie had a three-year relationship with a screenwriter who lived in L.A. What was at the root of Laurie’s issues with Ben?

9. While writing a magazine piece about her father, Laurie started to abuse the sleep aid Ambien. What caused her addiction? What did she learn in rehab that allowed her to get sober?

10. Why do you think Laurie’s father attended family week at Shades of Hope when he wasn’t on speaking terms with his daughter? Did Laurie’s mother somehow force him? Did he secretly wish to support his daughter? Or did he have some other motivation?

11. In recovery, Laurie learned that “secrets keep you sick.” How did secrets keep Laurie sick? How did they keep her whole family sick?

12. Laurie’s mother told her, “Your first loyalty should be to the family.” Do you agree with that statement? What are the circumstances in which “the truth was more important than loyalty,” as Laurie insisted?

13. Do you think Laurie’s father was mentally ill, a sociopath, brilliant, lonely, or something else entirely? What made him tell all those lies?

14. In many ways, The Impostor’s Daughter is about the search for an identity. What caused Laurie to lose her identity in the first place? What had to happen before she could find her true self?

15. By the end of the book, has Laurie overcome the challenges of her childhood? What are some new challenges she’ll likely have to face?

16. What do you imagine is going to happen to Laurie? Will she find love? Will she ever reconcile with her father? Should she?

17. What other books about truth telling and identity have you read and liked? Were there any particular themes in those books that struck you as similar to the themes in The Impostor’s Daughter?