Hachette Livre

Hachette Livre Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. What does The God of Animals say about the changing West? If Alice’s father and grandfather represent the old West, who represents the new?
  2. ‘We tried to make things better, tried to make the world sound like a nicer place than it was.’ Does this help Alice’s mother?
  3. ‘As much as the locals doubted the intentions of those who moved, new and fresh, into the valley, they doubted those who left it even more.’ How similar are Nona and her grandfather?
  4. ‘I would regret it afterward. I’d always be sorry to have come so close and not touched it.’ Does Nona regret not touching the ocean?
  5. ‘She never would have kicked if they hadn’t tied her legs.’ Is this true of all the ‘kicking’ in the novel?
  6. ‘I took it because the world was what it was, and turning down a suede jacket that fit perfectly wouldn’t make things any different.’ Acceptance is an important theme in the novel – what do you think the author is telling us?
  7. Why does Alice pretend to have been Polly Cain’s best friend?
  8. ‘Lovely was not so far away from lonely. A single letter was all that kept them from being exactly the same.’ Does Alice’s experience with Patty Jo’s gifts leave her with anything of value?
  9. ‘What was important was knowing that all I had to do to be better than other people was act like I was.’ What does this tell us about Alice?
  10. What is the significance of water in The God of Animals?
  11. ‘Everything, it seemed, came down to sex.’ Does it?
  12. ‘This is the truth about things. If you take something that isn’t yours, it will never belong to you. You can try to hold on to it, but somehow, it will slip through your fingers. If something wasn’t meant to be yours, it won’t be. No matter what you do to keep it, you will lose it.’ This is what The God of Animals is about, isn’t it?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  2. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  3. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  4. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  5. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  6. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  7. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  8. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  9. How To Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper
  10. Still Waters by Camilla Noli
  11. Wives of the East Wind by Liu Hong
  12. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  13. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  14. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  15. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  16. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  17. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  18. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  19. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  20. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  21. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  22. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  23. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  24. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  25. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  26. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

Suggested Further Reading