Introduction

Clare Moorhouse, the American wife of a high-ranking diplomat in Paris, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband's career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the unexpected arrival of her son and a random encounter with a Turkish man, whom she discovers is a suspected terrorist. More unnerving is a recurring face in the crowd, one that belonged to another, darker era of her life. One she never expected to see again.

Like Virginia Woolf did in Mrs. Dalloway, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party.

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Excerpt

ime rained down on Clare. 8:30 a.m. on the clock hanging above the breakfast alcove. Twenty-five years of pretending Ireland never existed.

She would have to step again into that air terminal. Stare into the dark waters of the River Liffey. Look over her shoulder at every instant.

Remember.

“The ambassador has just been diagnosed with viral pneumonia,” Edward had whispered last evening, sliding his BlackBerry into his inner jacket pocket, as they entered a cocktail reception for the Franco-British Entente Cordiale program. “And the permanent under-secretary’s flight touched down at Charles de Gaulle forty-five minutes ago. He’s requested the dinner in his honor tomorrow night be shifted to our place.” ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Who bears responsibility for Clare’s youthful choice? What changed over time to make it seem so terrible to her? Does she make the best choice(s) at the end of the book?
2. What weight does memory have in our lives? What are we entitled to shed from our pasts? Can even bad memories sometimes prove useful?

3. Could Clare have handled her day--multitasking a medley of personal, professional, and familial needs while preparing and hosting a formal dinner--differently? Is having to balance public and private lives an atypical experience?

4. Clare inhabits a beautiful apartment in Paris with full-time staff, but “the splendor belonged to the crown; she and Edward were just staff (and she unpaid staff, at that),” and she has almost no privacy and little free will. How would most people feel in their lifestyle?

5. Clare and Edward keep secrets from each other, and we learn that Edward has distinct views on the matter. Is it necessary in a marriage to know everything about your partner?

6. Jamie is clearly his mother's son, but is Clare completely responsible for his dangerous blunder? Has being the child of a dual-national marriage and having lived in many different places influenced his behavior? Are Clare’s initial efforts to protect him from his father and Edward from Jamie prudent? What about her eventual action?

7. What is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist? Are there instances when political action—even violent—outside of norms is defensible?

8. What effect might 9/11 have had on perceptions of unlawful political action? On expatriate or global living? On diplomacy?

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