The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. If you found an artifact like the silk sleeve, what would you do with it?

2. Have you ever experienced the loss of a parent or parental figure as Mei Lien, Inara, Daniel, and Yan-Tao experience in the novel? How do their experiences reflect or contradict your own?

3. How do Mei Lien and Inara’s experiences as women compare to your own experiences, or those of your female family and friends?

4. If you were faced with Joseph’s choices—to accept and protect a person demonized by your society—what do you think you would do? Why?

5. How has generational racism impacted your life or the life of your family?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. What did you learn about the experiences of people of Chinese descent in American history from reading the novel?

2. Inara and her siblings choose to acknowledge, apologize, and attempt to provide restitution for the past crimes of their ancestors. This decision is in stark contrast to Inara’s parents, who hid from the shame of their family’s actions, or attempted to use their gains to benefit others. What do you think is the right or best way to address historical injustices?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Discuss the relatability and believability of the antagonistic characters. Does Estes effectively craft multi-faceted human beings who engage in racist, prejudiced, and violent behavior? Why or why not?

2. There are recurring images of animals (sea birds, the seal in the bay, the bald eagle, etc.). How are these animals symbolic of either Mei Lien or Inara’s experiences and lives?

3. Discuss Estes’s treatment of the characters who are only described in memory, specifically Inara’s mother, Dahlia, and adult Ken Chin (Yan-Tao), who is only described in Vera’s voice from her memory. What purpose does it serve to have these characters recalled and discussed rather than presented in scenes?

4. What effect does setting have on the narrative as a whole? Is it important that Inara and Mei Lien end up living on an island rather than the mainland? Why or why not?