This Tender Land

1. General Impressions 

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• The story portrays a great deal of human suffering. On balance, did you find it depressing, or uplifting?
• This Tender Land is a companion novel to Kruger’s 2014 novel, Ordinary Grace. What is the relationship between these two novels? Do you see any overlap in their themes, or do they convey completely different messages?
• Kruger’s novel is both a coming-of-age story and a journey story. What other stories of these types have you read, watched, or played? What do you enjoy most and least about stories like this?

2. Personal Reflection and Connection 

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

• What conflicting ideas about religion is Odie exposed to? Do any of these ideas resonate with your own beliefs, or do you find that your perspective is not represented in this novel? How does your answer impact your experience of reading the book?
• Odie encounters many kinds of injustice. Which injustice made the strongest impression on you? How does this reflect your personal values?
• Do you believe in the idea of supernatural gifts? How does your answer affect your interpretation of Emmy’s and Eve’s characters?
• What is your own definition of “home”? Which character’s understanding of this term best reflects your views? 
• Odie and his companions sometimes find themselves in circumstances where they must make difficult moral choices.