All the Living A Novel [Paperback]

ANew York Times Book ReviewEditors' Choice

One of the National Book Foundation's 5 Best Writers Under 35

Finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished book of fiction

Third Place in Fiction for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award

Aloma is an orphan, raised by her aunt and uncle, educated at a mission school in the Kentucky mountains. At the start of the novel, she moves to an isolated tobacco farm to be with her lover, a young man named Orren, whose family has died in a car accident, leaving him in charge. The place is rough and quiet; Orren is overworked and withdrawn. Left mostly to her own, Aloma struggles to settle herself in this lonely setting and to find beauty and stimulation where she can. As she decides whether to stay with Orren, she will choose either to fight her way to independence or accept the rigors of commitment.

Both a drama of age-old conflicts and a portrait of modern life, C. E. Morgan's debut novel is simply astonishing . . . a book about life force, the precious will to live, and all the things that can suck it right out of a person (Susan Salter Reynolds,Los Angeles Times).

1. Discuss the novel's title and epigraph. What truths about hope and mortality are captured in this passage from Ecclesiastes? How does this passage relate to love?

2. How are Orren and Aloma defined by tragedy? How is Aloma affected by the many voids in her past? How is Orren affected by constant immersion in traces of his past?

3. What does sex mean to Orren and Aloma? Is their mutual attraction sparked by a physical hunger, or an emotional hunger? How does this shift throughout the novel?

4. What does Orren think of the two houses on his property? What aspects of himself are represented by each one?

5. How do power and money shape Aloma's role in this relationship, and in many relationships, regardless of wealth or poverty? Does Orren l3: