Holloway

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One way of thinking about Nora’s personal journey, made up of layers of memories, history, personalities, and art, is as a kind of palimpsest. A palimpsest is a manuscript in which old writing has been erased or covered so new writing can be added, but traces of the original remain visible. The past is not completely removed; instead, it continues to influence what comes after.

Invite students to create a literary palimpsest using a passage, line, or quote from Holloway that connects to one of the novel’s main ideas: revisiting the past to move forward. Have them use their selection as the foundation for a new piece of writing that layers their own interpretation over, around, or alongside the original text to create a conversation between what the novel says and how they understand it.

Encourage students to experiment with the visual form of their palimpsest. They might allow selected words from the original passage to remain visible, write in the margins, repeat important phrases, cross through certain sections while preserving traces underneath, or arrange their responses in ways that show connection and tension between the two layers. Their new writing might expand on the original words, question them, complicate them, or reveal a new meaning that emerges through rereading.

After completing their palimpsests, ask students to reflect on and discuss the conversation they created between the original passage and their new writing. What new understanding of Nora’s journey emerged? What ideas from these layers will they carry with them as they move forward?

Questions for Discussion or Reflective Writing

• What is Gillian’s desire for Nora to hide parts of herself rooted in? How do Gillian’s beliefs about autism shape the way she parents Nora? What does Nora learn when she spends time with people who do not expect her to be different than she is?
• What does Nora gain from seeing herself in a world outside her own time? How does her experience in 1946, particularly at Saint-Alban, change the way she understands her own life?
• Why do you think Nora is so drawn to art? How does art help Nora make sense of the world, especially when it is falling apart?
• How do the revelations about Gillian’s past help Nora reinterpret their relationship? What else supports Nora’s healing? How is Nora able to understand that her mother did love her while also recognizing the ways she hurt her?
• What does it mean to feel seen? Do you think feeling seen is more important than feeling loved? Why or why not?

Related Resources

Teen Book Club Guide Discussion Questions from HarperCollins Children’s Books