The Secret of the Blue Trunk, Lise Dion

Secret of the Blue Trunk

By Lise Dion

(Tansley Reads Rating: 66%)

 

Icebreaker

 

If you have ever had to be the one responsible for cleaning and emptying someone’s home after their death, have you found something that surprised you? OR After you are gone will someone find something unusual among your possessions?

 

Questions

 

1.  In the beginning, Lise describes her life with her mother. Do you think Armande was a good mother?

2.  Lise finds a letter written to her by her mother in the bottom of the blue trunk, saying that Armande wants Lise to know her secret.  Why do you think Armande could never tell her husband or daughter about her past?

 

3.  Was Armand’s faith and dedication to the religious order real, or, did she follow that path as it was the only life she knew? Why do you think that, after living a cloistered life for so many years, once in the concentration camp, she doesn’t mention praying very often or even anything about her faith?

 

4.  Why do you think the nuns didn’t send the Canadian novices home when the rumours of world conflict began to penetrate the convent’s walls?

5.  Armande’s group of four all survived largely because they were able to get extra food and stay out of the death lottery, but, this was at the expense of the other prisoners.  Do you think they had any other choices?

 

6.  What do you think attracts Armande and Franz to one another?  How much of this do you think might have been in Armande’s imagination?

7.  What aspect(s) of Armande’s wartime experiences surprised you?

 

8.  Why, when the church turned it’s back on Armande, did she keep her nun’s habit until she had received the letter from Rome? Why did she keep her other religious articles when she states she never again went to church except for weddings and funerals?

 

9.  Although Armande had only one visit from her father 6 years after being placed with the nuns, and not having had any contact with her family since she left the Quebec convent, why does she never mention feeling abandoned by her family?  Once rescued, she had the Red Cross locate her brother in Quebec, why do you think she reached out to him?

 

10. Why do you think Lise choose to reveal her mother’s secrets so publically?

11.  Did the fact that the book was written simply add to, or detract from, your enjoyment of the book?

 

12. Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed?