Book Club Discussion Questions
For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of Little Bee.
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Introduction
Little Bee, a young Nigerian refugee, has just been released from the
British immigration detention center where she has been held under
horrific conditions for the past two years, after narrowly escaping a
traumatic fate in her homeland of Nigeria. Alone in a foreign country,
without a family member, friend, or pound to call her own, she seeks out
the only English person she knows. Sarah is a posh young mother and
magazine editor with whom Little Bee shares a dark and tumultuous past.
They first met on a beach in Nigeria, where Sarah was vacationing with
her husband, Andrew, in an effort to save their marriage after an
affair, and their brief encounter has haunted each woman for two years.
Now together, they face a disturbing past and an uncertain future with
the help of Sarah's four-year-old son, Charlie, who refuses to take off
his Batman costume. A sense of humor and an unflinching moral compass
allow each woman, and the reader, to believe that even in the face of
unspeakable odds, humanity can prevail.
Questions for Discussion
- "Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this
storyteller is alive" (p. 9). For Little Bee and other asylum
seekers, the story of their life thus far is often all they have. What
happens to the characters that carry their stories with them, both
physically and mentally? What happens when we try to forget our past?
How much control over their own stories do the characters in the book
seem to have?
- Little Bee tells the reader, "We must see all scars as beauty. Okay?
This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form
on the dying. A scar means, I survived" (p. 9). Which characters
in the story are left with physical scars? Emotional scars? Do they
embrace them as beautiful? Do you have any scars you've come to embrace?
Did you feel more connected to Little Bee as a narrator after this pact?
- Little Bee strives to learn the Queen's English in order to survive
in the detention center. How does her grasp of the language compare with
Charlie's? How does the way each of these two characters handle the
English language help to characterize them?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.