Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism, gender discrimination, and death.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Compare this novel to other texts that examine the intergenerational experiences of Vietnamese immigrants to the United States, or Vietnamese Americans—for instance, Thi Bui’s illustrated memoir The Best We Could Do or Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. What different things do they emphasize about this experience?

2. How do you like this novel in comparison with others about multiple generations of women? You might compare it, for instance, to Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, or Maxine Hong Kingston’s experimental memoir The Woman Warrior.

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. This novel engages the topic of mother-daughter relationships. Why do you think this is such a pervasive topic in literature, and how does that topic iterate itself here? Did you find this relationship relatable or realistic as it is portrayed in the novel?

2. After Xuân’s death,