5. If Jennifer had not been chosen for the veterinary antirecidivism program when she was released a second time, she might have been in the same difficult position looking for employment as she was after her first incarceration. If she had taken the job offered by her fellow inmate O’Brien—working for a drug dealer—would you see her character differently? How do you think Brooke or Natalie would have responded when they found her?
6. Natalie observes: “[K]ids seem to be who they’ll grow up to be pretty early in life. . . . Kyle and I have helped teach them how to make good choices between what’s right and what’s wrong, but their personalities have been with them from the get-go.” When Jennifer meets Natalie and Brooke, she is shocked at how easily she recognizes them. To what extent do Brooke’s and Natalie’s personalities seem intrinsic, and how much seems to be a result of their upbringing? To what degree has Jennifer’s personality changed at the end of the novel, when she’s fifty-five, compared to the beginning, when she’s a teenager?
7. Discuss the way Brooke approached decisions related to her pregnancy. Did you agree with her initial instinct to keep Ryan, the father, out of the child’s life? Or her choice to keep the baby? What would you have done in her shoes? What are the considerations—logistical and philosophical—that affect these kinds of decisions, and how do these considerations play out when Brooke and Jennifer face tough choices?
8. Brooke and Natalie have drastically different childhoods, but once reunited, they find common ground in the shared experience of separation from their birth mother. What other similarities between them mark them as sisters? Ultimately, do you think nature trumps nurture, or vice versa?
9. Throughout the novel, various characters note how technology and popular opinions about adoption influence their actions, from their decisions about whether to tell children that they are adopted to the use of the internet to track down family members. How would this story have been different in an earlier time period?
10. The importance of familial support is emphasized throughout the book, whether it comes from a sibling, parent, or spouse. How are the consequences of a lack of familial support depicted within the book? Discuss which relationships in Somewhere Out There seem more or less nurturing, and their direct and indirect effects on the characters involved.
Enhance Your Book Club
1. When Jennifer is in prison, she is able to reach a real turning point in her life as a result of an antirecidivism program. Prison book programs are also shown to reduce recidivism. Consider volunteering or donating books as a group to one that serves prisoners in your area, or learn more at prisonbookprogram.org.
2. Consider reading another novel that tackles the issue of adoption, such as Little Beauties by Kim Addonizio, The Mothers by Jennifer Gilmore, or The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers. How is this issue treated differently in those novels compared with Somewhere Out There, and how does perspective affect the story being told?
3. For Jennifer, the dogs she works with become not only a way of helping others, but also a source of personal comfort and pride in her ability to take care of something other than herself. How have animals in your life influenced you? Has a pet ever protected you or helped you get past a difficulty? Discuss as a group. To learn more about service animals, read more at pawswithacause.org.
For more thought-provoking and emotionally vivid novels by Amy Hatvany . . .
A captivating novel about one mother's struggle with alcoholism
Best Kept Secret
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The engrossing narrative of a happily childless woman who finds herself suddenly the parent of a grieving teenager
Heart Like Mine
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Independence, love, guilt, and sisterhood . . .
The Language of Sisters
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An emotionally rich and honest novel about making peace with the past—and embracing the future
Outside the Lines
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The heart-wrenching story of two mothers linked together by tragedy
Safe with Me
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© 2014 ALISON ROSA
AMY HATVANY is the author of Best Kept Secret, Outside the Lines, The Language of Sisters, Heart Like Mine, and Safe with Me. She lives with her family in Seattle, Washington.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Amy Hatvany
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hatvany, Amy, date.
Somewhere out there / by Amy Hatvany. — First Washington Square Press edition.
pages ; cm
1. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A8658S66 2015
813’.6--dc23
2015021661
ISBN 978-1-4767-0443-2
ISBN 978-1-4767-0444-9 (ebook)
Contents
Epigraph
Chapter 1: Jennifer
Chapter 2: Natalie
Chapter 3: Brooke
Chapter 4: Jennifer
Chapter 5: Natalie
Chapter 6: Brooke
Chapter 7: Jennifer
Chapter 8: Natalie
Chapter 9: Brooke
Chapter 10: Jennifer
Chapter 11: Natalie
Chapter 12: Brooke
Chapter 13: Jennifer
Chapter 14: Natalie
Chapter 15: Brooke
Chapter 16: Natalie
Chapter 17: Jennifer
Chapter 18: Brooke
Chapter 19: Natalie
Chapter 20: Brooke
Chapter 21: Natalie
Chapter 22: Jennifer
Chapter 23: Brooke
Chapter 24
: Natalie
Chapter 25: Brooke
Chapter 26: Natalie
Chapter 27: Brooke
Chapter 28: Jennifer
Chapter 29: Natalie
Chapter 30: Brooke
Chapter 31: Jennifer
Acknowledgments
A Readers Club Guide
Questions and Topics for Discussion
Enhance Your Book Club
About Amy Hatvany