Fic­tion

Lit­tle Pieces of Me: A Novel

Ali­son Hammer
September 1, 2020

When a DNA test reveals a long-buried secret, a woman must look to the past to under­stand her moth­er and her­self. Fol­low­ing her acclaimed debut nov­el, You and Me and Us, Ali­son Ham­mer offers a deeply mov­ing sto­ry of fam­i­ly, iden­ti­ty, rela­tion­ships, and Jew­ish culture.

genet­ics
fam­i­ly & relationships

Discussion Questions

Cour­tesy of HarperCollins

  1. Do you think Andy sus­pect­ed Paige was his child? If so, do you think he took the DNA test in hopes of con­nect­ing with her?

  2. Paige is deal­ing with a cri­sis of iden­ti­ty. She lost her job, is about to get mar­ried, and then finds out about her Not Par­ent Expect­ed. How much do your job, your fam­i­ly, or your social sta­tus play into your iden­ti­ty and how you see yourself?

  3. Have you tak­en a DNA test? If you have, why did you decide to do so? If you haven’t, would you con­sid­er it? Why or why not? If the DNA test revealed sur­pris­ing infor­ma­tion, would it change the way you see your­self or your family?

  4. Do you think Bet­sy made the best choice for her­self and her daugh­ter by lead­ing Mark to believe the baby was his? Do you think Mark ever suspected?

  5. Paige tells her mom that she for­gives her, and Eliz­a­beth gets upset and says she doesn’t need for­give­ness for some­thing that hap­pened before Paige was born. What do you think about that? Did Eliz­a­beth owe Paige an apol­o­gy for anything?

  6. Paige’s group of friends all strug­gle with feel­ing dif­fer­ent at some point in their lives. It’s one of the things they have in com­mon. Have you ever felt dif­fer­ent? How did you deal with those feel­ings? Do you have any groups of friends where you’re the same kind of different?

  7. In col­lege, William is not very accept­ing of Andy’s desire to stay clos­et­ed, even though William him­self had a trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ence com­ing out. What do you think of their rela­tion­ship? In what ways was it good, and in what ways was it destructive?

  8. Do you think Maks made the right deci­sion to trick Paige into going to Naples? How do you think he should have han­dled the sit­u­a­tion, know­ing what is best for his friend even if that friend doesn’t see it?

  9. Paige feels a lot of anx­i­ety over her per­ceived judg­ment from both soci­ety and her younger sis­ter about being an ​“old” bride. Do you think the wed­ding indus­try caters to young brides? Do you agree with Eliz­a­beth that love at any age deserves to be celebrated?

  10. Paige and Eliz­a­beth have a con­ver­sa­tion about dif­fer­ent kinds of love through­out one’s life. What kind of love do you think Eliz­a­beth and Mark had? What kind of love do Paige and Jeff have? Has the kind of love you look for changed over time?

  11. What do you think Paige and Andy’s rela­tion­ship will look like in the next five years? Do you think Andy and Eliz­a­beth will have any rela­tion­ship at all? How about Paige and Frannie?