The Clinging Thing reading group questions

1. What is ‘the clinging thing’ and what does the title come to mean by the end of the novel?

2. In what ways do Iqra, Hidayah, Iman, Aqsa and the women before them shape one another's lives, even across death and distance? What are they inheriting, or passing on?

3. The novel repeatedly returns to the question of what we owe one another. What do you think the book ultimately suggests about duty, responsibility and care? Are these obligations burdens, gifts, or both?

4. Mothers and daughters fuel so many of our stories. How does Iqra's relationship with Hidayah evolve over the course of the novel? What does she come to understand about her mother that she could not see at the beginning?

5. How do faith and uncertainty coexist in The Clinging Thing?

6. What role does Safia play in Iqra's life?

7. Grief has been explored across fiction forever. Are there an infinite number of ways that grief can manifest itself? How does The Clinging Thing explore different responses to grief?

8. Nature - rivers, birds, gardens, water – are noted across the novel. How do they help the characters understand memory, change, mortality and continuity?

9. Why do you think Iqra struggles so much with speaking openly about her pain? How does her silence affect her relationships with Safia, her husband, her mother and herself?

10. The novel ends with Iqra arriving at a new understanding of life, grief and responsibility. Is it a hopeful ending?