​​

• The collection is described as "a web rather than a line," with overlapping characters and events.

  How did these connections affect your reading experience? Did they shift your understanding of earlier or later stories?

​

• A recurring theme is revenge in the absence of justice. Can revenge ever be justified? Were there characters whose pursuit of revenge felt especially warranted or unsettling?

​

• Guatemala functions as both a setting and a central emotional presence. How does the sense of place shape the characters’ identities, choices, or moral frameworks?

​

• Which ending stayed with you the most, and why?

​

• The stories engage with religious, cultural, and colonial structures. How do these systems influence the characters' decisions, relationships, or internal conflicts?

​

• The author suggests that short stories allow space for contradiction and tension. Did the brevity of the form deepen your engagement, or leave you wanting more from certain characters or plots?

​

• In the story “Whose Story?” and throughout the book, the question arises: who has the right to tell certain stories? What responsibilities do writers have when portraying cultures or traumas that aren’t their own? What about the role of the reader?

​

• Some stories deliberately complicate the reader’s moral stance. Were there moments when you changed your mind about a character or situation? What influenced that shift?

​

• The author describes fiction as a space to imagine the justice that doesn’t exist in real life. Did any story offer a sense of moral satisfaction or discomfort through this imagined justice?

​

• With multiple narrators, the book offers a range of voices and degrees of reliability. Which narrators felt trustworthy or unreliable to you? How did that shape your interpretation of their actions?

​

• In the final story, the character chooses not to seek revenge because they have connection and support. Do you agree that connection is an antidote to revenge? Where else does this theme appear in the book?

​

• Some stories critique American or Western influence abroad. What perspectives on power, intervention, or privilege stood out to you? Did the book challenge or complicate your views?

​

• Which story resonated with you most personally? Did it reflect something from your own experience, or did it challenge your assumptions or worldview?