10. Do you agree with Lucy when she writes: "You think you can't go home again? It's the only place you can ever go"? (p. 301)

11. Does one have to first become a parent—or, in Lucy's case, a parent proxy—in order to come to terms with one's own parents?

12. Books have been written and accessible for only a fraction of humankind's time on earth. Can you imagine living in a world without literature? How might your life have turned out differently if there were no books to read?

Read O's review of The Borrower

See which books made O's 2011 summer reading list