Introduction

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In the tradition of Susan Isaacs comes a charming debut novel about a lovable phone psychic who will either save her family from financial ruin--or ruin them altogether.

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Excerpt

Chapter One

My office was like a secret room you'd come upon in a dream.

Every morning I climbed a rickety back staircase to the north wing of our old Tudor to my haven, where crystals hung in the windows, casting rainbows on the white walls. I dressed in white and used my real name so people would trust me. If people trusted me, I could feel it. If people trusted me, I did a better job. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

BOOK GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS from Rochelle Shapiro


1. There are times that Miriam feels that her own dead mother is speaking through her daughter, Cara, who looks so much like Miriam's mother. Did you ever have the eerie sensation that someone who passed over was communicating with you through someone else? Has this novel changed your ideas of the afterlife? What are your ideas? How does this book affect your belief or lack of belief in psychic phenomenon?

2. Throughout Miriam the Medium, different characters chafe against one another, in either an effort to forge their own identity -- or to escape the one they feel saddled with. Miriam goes against her Bubbie's teachings. Cara goes against Miriam's lessons about her gift. What is the cost to each character? Have you ever had major consequences for going against your family's traditions and mores?

3. Miriam's psychic gift is the catalyst for much of the action. Why do you think Shapiro gave Miriam the ability to tell everyone's fortunes, but not her own and her own family's?

4. Why do you think Shapiro set a novel about mediumship and identity in the wealthy modern-day suburb of Great Neck, New York? Does Miriam feel at home in her town? Why or why not? Does this change in the course of the novel? If so, how?

5. Shapiro weaves issues about Jewish identity -- and some of her characters' attempts to suppress it -- through the book. Rory is a child of Holocaust survivors, Miriam was the child of pogrom survivors. How do you think these events affected their attitudes toward life? What do you think Shapiro is trying to say about suppressing any kind of identity, be it religious or psychic?

6. Shapiro explores the different ways mothers -- and motherly figures -- relate to daughters, such as the relationships between Bubbie and Miriam, Miriam and her mother, and Miriam and her own daughter, Cara. By the end of the book, which mothers have connected with which daughters -- and why? What do you think Shapiro is saying about this most primal human bond?

7. Miriam the Medium is really about trusting yourself -- who you are, what your are capable of, and who you are meant to be. How does that theme weave through Miriam's life, Cara's? How does "trusting oneself" get distorted in Rory's life?

Weblinks

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»	Author Interview
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»	Publisher's Book Info
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