How might you use the novel to comment on the debate surrounding private and public property, particularly on colonized land?

In what ways does Liam’s assimilation into the Church mirror or ironically contrast with Tomás’s initial collaboration with the British Ordnance Survey?

Contrast the forms of cultural resistance embodied by Enda and Eugene, considering her use of music and his mystical connection to the land.

The holy well, or tobar, is a catalyst for Tomás’s transformation and a nexus of the land’s spiritual power. How does this unmapped site challenge the authority of the British survey and represent a deeper, pre-colonial truth?

How do the diverse acts of resilience by female characters, from Phina’s pragmatism to Enda’s radical self-liberation, challenge patriarchal and colonial structures while contributing to the novel’s broader theme of survival?

Drawing on the traditional role of the seanchaí in Gaelic culture as a keeper of oral history and lore, analyze how O’Farrell revises this figure for a post-Great Famine world.

Analyze the significance of the novel’s anti-realist ending. What does the novel suggest about the act of dissolving the individual back into the mythic landscape?

Discuss how physical objects like Brith’s gold ring and the recurring figure of the wolfhound function as conduits between the novel’s present and its deep, mythic past.