Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

Where would you place this memoir on a continuum of honesty and openness?
Nuala mentions several "strokes of luck." What were they and how did they affect her life?
She says that in her years at UCD sex only made sense to her once (and describes the event). How did it make sense?
She refers to her "supposedly raised and feminised consciousness." What did she mean and how did she come to see herself in this way?
She writes several lyrical descriptions of place. Do you have a favorite? Which one?
Nuala listed learning to read as second after being born as a key event in her life. She says also that perhaps places were for her what books were for her mother. What was the connection? How did reading figure in her life? In her mother's life? What do you remember about learning to read? What has it meant to you in different periods of your life?
How was she like her mother, her father? What has she come to understand about them?
What was the place of religion in her family, in her life? What do you know about her spiritual journey?
Toward the end of the book she asks, "How do people arrange to love their ageing selves?" How does she deal with the challenges of ageing and loneliness? What has she learned?