10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World

The novel is told from a variety of voices and is written from a third-person omniscient point of view. Why do you think the author chose to write her novel from this point of view? How might the story have changed if the novel was told in the first-person point of view from Leila’s perspective? What would readers gain or miss out on?

Choose your favorite symbol—the betta fish, the hula hoop, the lemon and sugar waxing mixture, the porcelain angels, etc.—and write about how it changes your understanding of the novel. What does the symbol add to the various scenes it is in?

For every memory that Leila replays in her mind after her death, she begins by describing a taste or smell. Do you have any memories that you associate with a specific taste or smell? Why do you associate that specific memory with that taste or smell, and does it enhance the memory?

Throughout the course of the novel, readers spend time with Leila’s biological family and the family that she builds in Istanbul. Do you think both families are equally important with regard to Leila’s growth? Why or why not? What do you think defines family?

When Leila’s friends try to claim her body, they are told that only biological family members may do so. Do you believe Leila’s friends should have been allowed to give Leila a funeral? How does the novel explore the strain between the idea of biological family trumping all versus the reality of found family?

Secrets are a recurring motif within the story that both help and harm the characters. What do you think the novel is saying about keeping secrets? How do secrets tie into the ideological tensions present in the novel?

Throughout Part 1 of the novel, Leila’s family takes part in many traditional practices and superstitions. Choose one of these practices and research the significance of it. Where did it begin? Is it still practiced? How is it similar to other traditions in different cultures?

In what ways is the five’s choice to live together in Leila’s apartment significant? Why do you think they decided to live there and not somewhere else?