Hachette Livre

Hachette 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. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

Suggested Further Reading