Discussion questions for The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
- Whose story was more compelling for you, Laura’s or Sadie’s?
- How are Laura and Sadie similar? Different?
- Why do you think Sadie was so closed off from people? In part, she used her grandmother’s life as a justification for her own. What do you think finding out about Laura’s real life did for Sadie?
- Did you figure out who the past and present thieves were before the characters did? What were your clues?
- Kirkus‘s reviewer says that “[o]n the continuum of crime, pilfering books, [even invaluable first editions], ranks rather low on the thrill-o-meter. So Davis attempts to inject juicier conflicts. Laura’s struggle to get a degree from Columbia’s journalism school is doomed to fail thanks to flagrant sexism (though a professor plagiarizes her thesis). Sadie, who’s still reeling from a difficult divorce, is a suspect in the book thefts, as was her grandfather, Jack. The tension needle is hardly moved by flat characterizations or improbable plot developments while the writing is strictly functional: long on exposition, short on atmosphere. A story as lively as those stone lions.” If you disagree, point to specific examples of when the characters or plot came to life for you.
- Davis has said that this book is “about the power of women’s voices”. Do you agree or disagree? What else is this book about?
- In arguing for a harsher sentence for the book thief, Sadie is echoing the the words of a real-life librarian who made a similar argument in a case of books stolen from the Columbia University libraries. In the real-life case, as in fiction, the judge imposed a harsher sentence. If you were the judge, what would you have done?
- Like the book thefts, Davis took other aspects of this book from history, including that the superintendent of the NYPL and his family lived there, as Laura’s family does. How do you feel when authors take parts of reality, but change them for the needs of their books?
For more questions, check out the publisher’s resources.