Under Story Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

About this book

Still reeling from the death of her son, Laurel, a mycologist, flees to Antarctica to wash dishes at a research station, drawn to a place of six months' light and six months' dark. When a strange light appears across the ice and a team of physicists arrives, among them her ex-husband, Laurel becomes convinced their work could bend time itself and give them a way back to their child. From the author of The Immortalists, this is an inventive, moving novel about grief, science, and how far a parent will go to undo a loss.

Discussion questions

1. The novel opens with a grieving mother fleeing to Antarctica to wash dishes. What was your first impression of Laurel, and of the extreme place she chooses to disappear to?
2. The book moves from a research station into speculative territory about time and parallel lives. If the science or the structure ever slowed you, what pulled you back?
3. Laurel and her ex-husband Eli grieve their son in very different ways. What did their reunion on the ice reveal about each of them, and about how loss can pull people apart?
4. Laurel comes to believe there may be a way to undo their loss. Where did you land on how far she is willing to go, and on what you might do in her place?
5. Beneath the speculative premise, the book is about grief and the lengths a parent will go to. What did it ultimately say about loss, and about learning to live alongside it?
6. Benjamin builds a strange, inventive framework out of mycology and physics, imagining a mirror universe where time runs backward. How did that framework carry the emotional story, and did it work for you?
7. Antarctica, with its long light and long dark, is central to the book's mood. How did that setting shape the way you experienced Laurel's grief?
8. Did this remind you of another story about grief, second chances, or bending time, in a book, a film, or life?
9. The book asks what we would trade to get back someone we have lost. Without going anywhere you would rather not, did that question resonate for anyone at the table?
10. Who would you hand this to next, the reader who loves inventive speculative fiction or someone drawn to stories of grief and hope, and who should approach it with care?

Themes to listen for

• Grief and the lengths a parent will go to
• Loss and learning to live alongside it
• Science, wonder, and the mysteries of time
• Marriage tested by tragedy
• Hope against the odds

If your club liked this, try…

• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Where to get it

• Check availability at your local library
• Find it on Bookshop.org
• Listen on Libro.fm

Practical notes

Best for clubs open to inventive speculative fiction with real emotion. Pairs well with a conversation about grief and the stories we tell to survive it.

Content notes: The death of a child and suicidal thoughts, so flag it to your group and approach with care.