This reading group guide for A Young Wife includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Pam Lewis . The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. INTRODUCTION Amsterdam, 1912. When fifteen-year-old Minke Van Aisma travels to Amsterdam to care for the dying wife of a wealthy man, she has no idea what journey lies ahead. Only hours after his wife''s death, her employer, Sander DeVries, proposes marriage. Within days the couple has set sail for the oil fields of Argentina. They settle in the rough coastal town of Comodoro Rivadavia, where Minke eventually learns that her husband is not a successful trader, but a morphine producer.
The future that seemed so bright takes an even darker turn the morning their toddler son, Zef, is kidnapped. Sander seeks murderous revenge for the kidnapping, and he must flee Comodoro and start over in another country. Already pregnant with their second child, Minke has little choice but to wait for the new baby''s arrival, then follow Sander to America, leaving their firstborn behind forever. But when she arrives in New York and discovers that Sander has betrayed her, she leaves him, finds works as a seamstress, and vows to find her son, no matter how long it takes. TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION When we first meet Minke, she is a fifteen-year-old girl from a tiny Dutch town. How does Minke change over the course of the novel? What risks has she taken by the end of A Young Wife that she might not have seemed capable of at the beginning? Consider Minke''s relationship with Elisabeth DeVries, Sander''s dying wife. How do Minke and Elisabeth bond? Why does Elisabeth''s death haunt Minke? What lessons does Minke fail to learn from Sander and Elisabeth''s marriage? On the way to Comodoro, Cassian tells Minke, "Truth is a matter only what you put in and what you leave out. Truth is in the selection of fact.
" (p. 73) How does Minke learn about the flexibility of truth and lies? How does Cassian use selective truths to his own advantage? Discuss Minke and Sander''s relationship to the Dietzes, their fellow travelers to Argentina. What are Minke''s first impressions of the Dietz family? How do the Dietzes react to the death of their daughter, Astrid? Do you think they hold Minke and Sander responsible for Astrid''s death? Why or why not? What are Minke''s first impressions of Comodoro as she arrives by ship? What dangers and thrills await her in this "vast, colorless" land? (p. 124) Consider the gauchos of Argentina and their relationship to the settlers of Comodoro. Why is Minke fascinated with the gauchos'' traditions and lifestyle? How are the gauchos'' values different from the settlers'' values and what tensions exist between these two groups? After Cassian is attacked in Comodoro, Minke is "forced to see herself, her family, in a new light as corrupt, even evil, and protection as something that could vanish in the wink of an eye." (p. 214) How does Cassian''s attack serve as a turning point in the novel? What other acts of violence and betrayal follow soon after? What does Minke realize about her role in Comodoro''s community? Compare the two scenes of immigration in the novel: Minke''s arrival in Comodoro with Sander, and her passage through Ellis Island with Cassian. What are Minke''s expectations during each scene of arrival? How are her expectations met or thwarted as she settles into a new life? After Sander''s infidelity, Minke "thought back over their years together, almost three now.
Why hadn''t she seen his character before? The signs had been there." (252) What signs of Sander''s true nature did Minke miss, and why did she ignore them? How did Sander deceive Minke? What motivates this complicated character? Trace Minke''s relationship with Pieps, from their first meeting on the Frisia to their unexpected reunion in Comodoro at the end of the novel. How does Pieps help Minke feel at home in a foreign land? What does Minke learn from Pieps? Do you think their friendship will evolve into something more? Discuss the relationship between Minke and Fenna. How are the sisters similar, and how are they different? Facing Fenna after her betrayal, Minke realizes, "She didn''t despise Fenna. That would have required passion. No, Fenna had shown her true colors and Minke was no longer interested." (p. 335) What are Fenna''s "true colors," and what price does Fenna pay for her deceptions? Minke''s mind clears when she realizes the conspiracy behind Zef''s kidnapping: "Like a fog lifting, a world comes newly into focus, she had to let go of one set of beliefs and make room for another.
" (p. 302) Name another occasion when Minke learns to let go of her beliefs. What does she learn from others'' deceptions? Revisit the luncheon scene between the Wileys and the Dietzes. How is this scene funny as well as suspenseful? How do the Wiley siblings outsmart the Dietzes, and how does Minke prove that their little boy is Zef? A Young Wife ends with Minke''s return to Comodoro with Zef and Elly. "New York was not a place to raise her children. She has tasted better, far better. Comodoro is her gift to them." (p.
346) What is it about Comodoro that draws Minke back, even when her children''s future seems more secure in New York? What opportunities await this small family in Comodoro? ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB Arriving at Ellis Island, Minke and other immigrants "could bring into the country only what you could carry yourself." (p. 234) Brainstorm a list of what you would bring if you had to start your life over in a new country. What would you pack in your suitcase, and what would you leave behind? Minke speaks three languages: Dutch, Spanish, and English. Teach your book club how to greet each other in Spanish and Dutch. Start with some Dutch phrases here: http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/dutch.
php. What is the history of morphine, the drug that Sander and Cassian produce? View a timeline of opium''s history, from 3300 B.C. to the present day: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html. A Young Wife is based on a true story from Pam Lewis''s family.
If you could write a novel based on any story from your family''s history, what would it be? Write a paragraph or two about the most interesting story from your family--past or present, real, or imagined--and share it with your book group! A CONVERSATION WITH PAM LEWIS A Young Wife is based on your grandmother''s secret past. How did you come to learn this extraordinary family story? We moved often when I was growing up, and my grandmother''s rare visits were highlights of my childhood. She told stories of a disaster at sea, a burning ship, circling sharks and a husband''s heroism. She spoke of her life as a new bride in a place called Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, of handsome gauchos who rode into town on fabulous horses decked in turquoise and silver and their thunderous races down the dusty main street. There the story stopped. It picked up again with my grandmother''s serene life in California, her four daughters fully grown and a smattering of grandchildren. After my mother died in 1984, information began to flow. I learned from relatives that at age fifteen, my grandmother had been hired to tend a dying relative in the home of my then thirty-five-year old grandfather.
They fell in love, and, causing a scandal in the small town where they lived, sailed to Comodoro Rivadavia to start a sort of trading post there. He ultimately abandoned her in New York with four young daughters to begin another family with her own sister. Astonishingly, my grandmother continued to love him until the day she died. This scant but rich information was a rare gift for a fiction writer. The exotic settings, the passion, and the devastating betrayal became the bones on which to build my story. I was glad not to know everything -- virtually nothing of my grandfather to this day-- so that my imagination was free to make up the rest. A Young Wife is a new direction for you as a writer, after two books of suspense fiction. Was your writing process different this time? What elements of suspense were you able to incorporate into this turn-of-the-century saga? My writing process didn''t vary much with this book.
In all three, the suspense was added relatively late in the writing process. For A Young Wife , I knew the general shape of the story but surprised myself with the suspense. My grandmother lost a child in Comodoro when a nurse mixed water that hadn''t been boiled into his food. I loosely intended for this to happen in the novel but when the time came to write it, I couldn''t bear to see the child die and decided he should be kidnapped instead, which raised the far more interesting questions of who did it, why, where was the child taken and would he ever be seen again? From gauchos'' traditions to Ellis Is.