1. How do Gifty and her mother use prayer differently throughout their lives, and especially after Nana’s death? What variations of prayer do the two women discover in the novel?
a. Prayer as a way to keep going (mother) or a way to be grounded (Gifty)
b. We know from the synopsis that Nana will pass away from an overdose and we slowly learn how he gets to that point. When did it become apparent that Nana had a problem?
2. How does Gifty approach the moral predicament of running her science experiments on mice? What elements of her faith and sense of connection to God’s creations are evident in how she treats the mice?
a. Gifty decide to study reward-seeking behavior
b. Gifty questions her faith and on page 128 she remarks, “We read the Bible how we want to read it. It doesn’t change, but we do.” What do you think she’s saying here?
3. Consider the stigmas surrounding addiction, especially opioid addiction, the rates of which are exploding in today’s society. What other stigmas and expectations was Nana responding to by not asking for help to deal with his addiction, and others why not doing more to help?
a. Hurting from Dad leaving, his reward left
b. Opioids became the reward
c. The conclusion of her studies gave her any answers and insight into depression and addiction
4. In what ways does Gifty take on the role of caretaker for those in her life? Who, if anyone, takes care of Gifty?
a. nobody
5. Gifty admits that she values both God and sciences as lenses through which to see the world that both “failed to fully satisfy in their aim: to make clear, to make meaning” (198). Why does she have to lead with the caveat that she “would never say [this] in a lecture or a presentation or, God forbid, a paper”? How does the extreme belief in science mimic the faith of the religious zealots she turned away from?
a. If you don’t believe in God, you go to hell
b. I’m not alone in this
6. What messages do Gifty and Nana hear about the intersection of race and poverty in their youth church meetings? How do the siblings respond to the conflation of the two—and what does the assumption that African countries are impoverished or need saving by missionaries suggest about the colonial power dynamic engrained in our society?
a. Nana first played soccer but eventually moved to basketball.
b. Trying to be “hip” youth pastor saying without missionaries there would benothing
c. On Page 160 Gifty says, “Nana is the reason I began this work, but not in a wholesome, made-for-TED Talk kind of way. Instead, this science was a way for me to challenge myself, to do something truly hard, and in so doing to work through all of my misunderstandings about his addiction and all my shame.” Let’s talk about this. Why do you think she experienced so much shame? Do you think she understood her brother more through her research?
d. Generalization of oppression from generation to generation
7. Gifty refers to her relationship with her mother as an “experiment.” Are there similarities in the way Gifty approaches her work and her relationship with her mother? How did the separate events of losing the Chin Chin Man and Nana’s death affect their relationship? Throughout the course of their lives, how does Gifty determine whether or not her and her mother are “going to be ok” (33)?
a. I’ll bring you soup
b. Gifty is the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants. Her father never felt comfortable in the U.S. and eventually went back to Ghana and never returned to see his children.
c. What do you think about the complicated relationship between Gifty and her mother? Do you believe they eventually came to an understanding each other?
8. Throughout the book, Gifty struggles to find a sense of community in places where people traditionally find it (school, work, family, church, etc.). What life experiences shape her understanding of community? In what ways does this affect her ability to build relationships with the people in her life (Anna, Raymond, Katherine, Han)?
a. Gifty’s mother believed that moving her family to the U.S. will give them a better life.
b. It proves to be much more challenging and heartbreaking than she could imagine.
c. It’s hard to have community when everyone is white
9. Explore the idea of humans are the only animal “who believed he had transcended his Kingdom” (21). How does this idea influence Gifty’s relationship with science? With religion?
a. God reflects what the people need at the time.
10. Describe the difference between Gifty’s connection to Ghana and her connection to Alabama. In what ways does she feel connected to her Ghanaian ancestry?
a. The family lives in Huntsville, Alabama and they experience racism and discrimination.
b. Family’s experience in this small town.
c. stigma of mental health in Ghana
11. How does Gifty feel when she overhears congregants gossiping about her family? How does this experience influence her relationship with the church? With her family? With God?
a. Gifty’s mother is very religious and the kids grew up attending an evangelical church.
b. Gifty used to write letters to God when she was a child—why did the author include those letters in the novel?
12. Gifty privately considers her work in the lab as holy—“if not holy, then at least sacrosanct (p. 92).” Explain her reasoning, and why she chooses not to discuss this feeling with anyone.
a. After her brother passes away, Gifty becomes a bit disillusioned with her faith. But she never can quite shake it—not when she’s at Harvard and her classmates are making fun of religion or when she’s an adult working on her research.
b. Do you think that Gifty found a balance between her love for science and that of her faith in the end?
