READERS GUIDE
Reader’s GuideHow to Find Your Way Home by Katy Regan
Discussion Questions:
1. How are birds, especially the swifts that nest in the memorial hall every year, used to explore different themes in the book, particularly the idea of home?
2. When Stephen tries to tell his mother about Mitch and how he treated him as a child, she says, “He just wanted to make a man out of you.” And Stephen replies, “There are different ways of being a man.” What do you think each of them means?
3. How has How to Find Your Way Home changed—if at all—your perception of homelessness and how homeless people are treated? What factors contributed to Stephen ending up on the streets?
4. How do you think Stephen’s and Emily’s memories of their childhood—including the June day in 1999—differ, and why?
5. It could be said that, besides Mitch, Alicia is the most flawed character in the novel. What are her flaws, and how far does she overcome them? Do you think she finds her own resolution at the end?
6. Stephen is literally homeless, but Emily is homeless in a spiritual way. Why is this? And how does her spiritual homelessness manifest and/or affect her life?
7. What has Stephen’s passion for nature and birdwatching brought to his life, and how has it helped him, particularly during difficult times?
8. What do you imagine happens to each of the characters after the book has ended?
