In Bad Bishop, the loss of a physical sense (seeing or hearing) often paradoxically grants deeper insight. Analyze how the novel shows Lila’s and Tiernan’s acuity and keen insight. What are they able to detect or observe about each other and their contexts?

Lila initially hides her ability to communicate. Before she and Tiernan begin communicating via American Sign Language and texting, how do they develop intimacy? What changes in their relationship once they can communicate directly?

Analyze Chiara Ferrante’s actions through a feminist critical lens. While her scheme to protect Lila is ultimately oppressive, how can her choices be interpreted as a rational response to the extreme patriarchal violence of the Camorra?

Why does Lila become attached to her unborn child even though the pregnancy is a result of rape? What kind of relationship does she aspire to build with her future child, and how do these hopes relate to her own dysfunctional family dynamics?

Prior to having sex with Lila, Tiernan has only engaged in anal sex and receiving oral sex. How does his willingness to explore giving, as well as receiving, pleasure reflect his character development?

How does Shen use the contrasting settings of the opulent Ferrante estate and Tiernan’s gritty pub in the Bronx to contrast Lila’s childhood and married life? In which setting does she find greater authenticity and empowerment?

How does the reveal that Vello Ferrante is not Lila’s biological father affect her characterization and sense of self? Does the idea that Lila’s goodness is connected to her biological heritage undermine the idea that her own child may carry traces of Fintan’s legacy?

Fintan claims that he deserves mercy because he suffered the trauma of watching his mother be killed when he was a child and because he once talked Tiernan out of suicide. Are these arguments compelling? How do Fintan’s history of trauma and struggles with addiction nuance his positioning as the story’s villain?