Book Group Questions: The Vanished Child

1. Sometimes Reisden is called Reisden, sometimes Richard. Do you like this way of telling a story? Why or why not?
2. Memory makes us, and The Vanished Child is a book about memory. But Reisden never does remember who he is. Why do you suppose the author chose not to have him remember?
3. “What we want from memory is what we want from our own city, a sense of being at home, or at least known, a sense of ourselves.” What connections exist between memory and place in the book?
4. The idea for The Vanished Child came from a real kidnapping, the disappearance of Charley Ross in the 1870s. (You can find details about the Charley Ross case on the Internet.) In the version Sarah Smith read, a man calling himself Charley Ross came back nearly sixty years later, and no one cared. How did Sarah Smith change the story, and why do you think she made those changes?
5. Today, DNA testing would tell us instantly whether Alexander von Reisden was Richard Knight. The lack of DNA testing makes his identity less clear, but it also gives him time to explore the full range of his identity. Is the kind of scientific certainty that DNA testing gives the only way we can be certain of who we are? What makes identity? What about you makes your identity?
6. Traditionally it’s hard to tell a story from the point of view of a disabled person or a young person. Why do you suppose Sarah Smith made her heroine, Perdita, legally blind and only seventeen years old?
7. “Gilbert was afraid of canned goods, electricity, and bicycles…little dogs, big dogs, squirrels, comets, escalators, drunkards, and drains.” People who have been abused, as Gilbert has, are often either abusive or afraid. Do you know anyone like Gilbert? Anyone like William? Are they two sides of the same coin? Do you think Gilbert himself is abusive in his treatment of Harry?
8. “I know who I am,” Alexander von Reisden says at the end of the book. Does he? Who is he? Is Richard dead? Is Reisden Richard?
9. “Someone killed Richard. Now Richard wants to know why.” How is The Vanished Child like a ghost story?
10. From Victor inimitably describing the murder of William Knight, The Vanished Child is not a story about what happened but about what people think might have happened. Is it enough that Reisden, and others, learn to decide what they think happened? Do you wish that they had learned more clearly what did happen?
11. Family relationships in The Vanished Child aren’t by blood. Harry isn’t Gilbert’s nephew; Perdita isn’t his niece; Reisden says he isn’t Richard; Perdita’s parents are thousands of miles away and everyone else’s parents are dead. Why do you think the author chose to do this?
12. One of the last scenes is set at the moment of a death. What other scenes in books you have read does this remind you of?
13. Why is the last word of the book “home”?