Hot Milk (Levy)

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Hot Milk...then take off on your own:

1. Readers meet Sofia just when she's dropped her laptop: "My laptop has all my life in it,” she says. “If it is broken, so am I." In what way is Sofia broken—and Just how broken is she?

2. How would you describe Sofia's mother Rose? Of course, it's hard to describe her without dissecting the mother/daughter relationship. How would you describe their bond (or perhaps in Sofia's case, bondage)?

3. Sofia observes of herself:

I am living a vague, temporary life in the equivalent of a shed on the fringe of a village. What has stopped me from building a two-story house in the center of the village?

Care to comment on that thought? What has stopped Sofia? Does her imagined "shed" hold any relevance to your life?

4. In what way might both Sofia and her mother be considered unreliable characters? How about Dr. Gomez? Is he unreliable...or simply unorthodox? Perhaps a little of both?

5. Talk about the setting of the story: Almeria, Spain, where the sea is oily and filled with stinging jelly fish, and the land is "wind-beaten and sun-baked,...cracked and dry.” In what way, if at all, does this inhospitable landscape shape the characters and their actions? Did the atmosphere lead to a sense of menace or dread while reading the novel?

6. During her stay in Spain, Sofia is stung, repeatedly, by Medusas. What is the symbolic significance of the Spanish name for jellyfish? What are the connections to Greek mythology?

7. Consider, too, the title and its significance. What might milk suggest...or hot milk at that?

8. What is behind Sofia's often risky behavior: stealing a fish, freeing a dog, smashing a vase, and taking one rather casual lover then another lover?

9. Gradually, Sofia begins to repair her life. Describe the process, or individual steps, that transform her. Consider, for instance, her anthropological skills: how does she put them to use in her life?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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