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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What activity occurs in the middle of the first night?

2. Where does Frances live?

3. As Frances enters the meditation studio in Chapter 11, she is shocked to find whom?

4. What information does Alain accidentally let slip to Frances?

5. How did the negative review describe Frances's work?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information does Masha learn about Carmel in Chapter 24?

2. Who is Masha and what happens to her in Chapter 1?

3. What about the Marconi family confuses the director of Tranquillum House in Chapter 9?

4. Who is the director of Tranquillum House? How has she been transformed?

5. What does the reader learn about Tony in Chapter 18?

6. What shocking change happened to Jessica and Ben prior to their coming on the retreat? How did the change affect them?

7. What does the reader learn about Heather in Chapter 10?

8. Why is Tony famous?

9. Masha keeps receiving emails from which person? How does she respond?

10. What happened during Masha's near-death experience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Masha’s “new protocol”? What does she think of it, and what do Yao and Delilah think about it? What are the benefits and drawbacks to this protocol, as seen in the guests? Ultimately, is this protocol beneficial or harmful?

Essay Topic 2

At one point in the novel, Masha wants the guests to consider the koan “Show me your original face, the one you had before your parents were born” (132). Discuss the meaning of this koan and how it might apply to two characters in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

How would you classify this novel? Is it a romance? A thriller? A mystery? All of the above? How does the novel’s classification mirror Frances and her career?

(see the answer keys)

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