Q: Which character was the easiest for you to write? Which was the most difficult?
A: Aunt Baby was the easiest for me to write because I saw her immediately. Dahlia was the most difficult. There is so much more I could have written about her, but then the novel would have been six hundred pages.
Q: In the last sentence, you write, “Thanks for everything. Thanks from the both of us.” Who else?
A: Why, Phoebe, of course. I wanted Dahlia to understand that DID cannot be miraculously fixed. Before Dahlia can even begin to heal, she needs to acknowledge her alter and realize that the healing process could take years.
Q: Were there other journal entries that you wrote for Phoebe aside from those included in the novel?
A: Yes, there were several other journal entries. And no, I can’t share them. They’re sealed for Phoebe’s protection.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
1. In her interview, Gabrielle Pina says that we choose ourselves in our mates. How does this play out in other relationships in the book? Do you think this is a true statement?
2. Lucius is a very complex character: seemingly deep and thoughtful, yet neglectful toward almost every living person. What role do his aloofness and relative calm play in the storms of Dahlia’s life? How do these traits manifest themselves in his other relationships?
3. Do you think most husbands would react to their wives’ psychological illnesses the way Milky does? How would you react if you suspected that someone close to you had a mental illness?
4. Aunt Baby and Percival remain calm even in the toughest and craziest of situations. How does their patience influence their decision making and their love for each other? How does it impact their abilities to help others?
5. Some of the most important characters in Chasing Sophea have names that imply multifaceted relationships (Uncle Brother, Aunt Baby). What does Gabrielle Pina suggest about the changing/ mutable roles of family members, especially in times of crisis?
6. Forbidden lust and temptations recur throughout this tale. Who succumbs to temptation, and what does it reveal about their personalities?
7. Aunt Baby is a great mother to Dante, even though she didn’t give birth to him. Lucius is distressed at the way his mother abandoned him. Dahlia certainly suffered at the hands of her mother, and Isabel seems to have as well. What does Gabrielle Pina suggest about mothering and how motherly love impacts families?
8. Revelations and reckoning are dominant themes in this novel: everyone brings a different element of truth to light. In talking to Dahlia, Baby reassures her that the world will keep spinning even when they discuss the truth. What truths move this story forward? Are there any you wish had been explored further?
9. Discuss the various methods for healing described in this book. Which are the most effective? Why?
10. The Culpeppers have always been set apart from the rest of the world: by Jim Crow laws as well as by the nature of their profession. How does their social and geographic isolation help or harm them?
11. What was it that Dahlia needed to learn from Reva, Livia, and Jazz in order to heal?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GABRIELLE PINA received her MA from the University of Southern California Master of Professional Writing Program. She is a lecturer at the University of Southern California and a member of the adjunct faculty at Pasadena City College. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Ron, and her children, Julian, Maia, and Langston.
Chasing Sophea is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2006 by Gabrielle Pina
Reading Group Guide copyright © 2006 by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by One World Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division
of Random House, Inc., New York.
ONE WORLD is a registered trademark and the One World
colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
READER’S CIRCLE and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Pina, Gabrielle.
Chasing Sophea: a novel / by Gabrielle Pina.
p. cm.
Includes reading group guide.
eISBN: 978-0-307-51723-4
1. Multiple personality—Fiction. 2. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.I53C48 2006
813’.6—dc22 2006040005
www.readerscircle.com [http://www.readerscircle.com]
v3.0
Table of Contents
Other Books By This Author
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part 1 - Falling Apart
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Part 2 - The Space Between
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Part 3 - Free
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Epilogue
About The Author
Copyright