Book club questions for What Is Left For Us by Sophie Stern.
What Is Left For Us tells the story of Rebecca and Hannah, two sisters who are inseparable until a betrayal tears their friendship apart. When they jointly inherit their grandmother’s clifftop house in Bondi, they’re forced to reunite. Over the course of two weeks, everything they think they know about each other will change.
Discussion points and questions
- Why are the fierce, complicated bonds between sisters of perennial interest in fiction?
- Did you find yourself taking sides with Hannah? Or Rebecca? Or did your allegiances switch and divide?
- It is said there are two sides to every story. Are there? Why do Rebecca and Hannah struggle to see things through each other’s eyes?
- The sisters haven't spoken in a decade, yet find themselves bound together by the house. What does the novel suggest about the obligations that family places on us?
- Is it possible for you to imagine having only minimal contact with a sibling for ten years? How bad would their transgression need to be?
- How culpable is Max in the rift between the sisters? Both initially, and ongoing?
- Parenting, and not being a parent, is a stream coursing through What Is Left For Us. Does this exacerbate the differences and misunderstandings between the sisters, or provide an opportunity for them to come together?
- Inheritance disputes in Australia are common and rising. Why is it that families, the core unit in most lives, become so vulnerable upon a death? What do you believe their grandmother hoped to achieve by insisting her home be shared between Rebecca and Hannah?
- What role does the house in Bondi play in the narrative?
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