READERS GUIDE

A Conversation with Jill Santopolo
 
1.        When you originally wrote The Light We Lost, did you have plans for a sequel?
I originally wrote The Light We Lost as a standalone and hadn’t planned for a sequel at all—but I started thinking about the concept of a sequel pretty early on because my sister Ali, who was one of the first people to read that book, asked me to tell her what happened next. Since that was her reaction, I figured other people might have a similar one—and it turned out to be true. I got a ton of messages asking me what came next for the characters and if there would be a sequel. I mentioned that to my editor at Putnam and was so excited when she told me she thought it was time for me to write it.
2.        What inspired you to send Lucy on a quest to Rome and Lampedusa? Is there anything about those locations specifically that felt like an unwritten chapter for Lucy and Gabe?
As anyone who has read my novel Stars in an Italian Sky knows, I love Italy and loved the idea of writing some scenes set there again. But more than that, in The Love We Found I wanted Lucy to find out about an experience Gabe had that she hadn’t known about when he was alive. Since Lampedusa is famous for being the gateway to Europe for many refugees, and I figured that was a story Gabe would have covered in his life, and it’s not one we heard about in The Light We Lost, it felt like the right location.
3.        It was lovely to see the return of characters who were so instrumental in Lucy’s life, such as her friends Kate and Julia. Is there anyone from your own life who inspired such characters?
I have a handful of close friends who have been an important part of my life for the last decades—people I met in my early twenties or college or even high school. I do have one college friend who was the jumping-off point for Kate—and another friend who was actually the jumping-off point for Courtney. Just like Lucy, I do really think that tight female friendships are what help us through so many of life’s rough patches, and I really enjoy writing about them.
4.        What was your favorite scene to write, and why?
There’s a very steamy scene on Lampedusa that I had a lot of fun writing because I loved the idea of Lucy rediscovering physical pleasure after so long without it. When I read that scene for the audiobook I decided it might be one of the steamiest scenes I’ve ever written (and I’ve written some steamy ones!).
5.        The pieces of children’s literature in this book, as well as in The Light We Lost, are such a nice touch. In what ways has your career in children’s book publishing influenced these moments?
I’ve spent more than twenty years editing children’s books, so they are part of the fabric of who I am and the reference points I have, so it felt natural to include them in this book, especially because Lucy produces children’s television programs, and her neighbor, Eva, is a children’s book creator. Fun fact: As I was writing the snippet of text for the picture book that Eva writes in this book, I decided I wanted to try to write the rest of it—and that book is going to be published the year after The Love We Found. It’s called Can You Grow a Striped Banana?
6.        Dax and Lucy quickly bond through their grief. What about that shared experience do you think made it possible for them to connect?
I think the experience of being touched by such a deep loss can leave people vulnerable in the same ways—and that vulnerability leads to both connection and understanding. After losses like they both have had, there’s a very real understanding that life is finite and that it’s important to hold the people we love close because we don’t know how much time we’ll have with them. I remember after my father died that talking to people who had been through that kind of an experience was so helpful and that the feeling that someone else understood my pain and the shift in my perspective was both helpful and healing.
7.        How did it feel to return to this story and these characters several years later? Did you find that you had to adjust your typical writing approach?
It was a lot of fun coming back to them—and it made the writing go a bit faster than usual because I knew who they were and how they think and what they experienced in their backstory to become the people they were. I had to fill in the last ten years of their lives, but otherwise I knew them. It felt a lot like reconnecting with an old friend you haven’t seen in a while—you play catch-up, but at their core, your friend is still the person you used to know.
8.        Without giving anything away, did you always know how the story would end?
I did. I always knew I wanted to leave Lucy in a place where she felt at peace.
9.        Throughout the novel, Lucy starts to think more about the power of the choices we make. In what ways do you think this helps her to better understand herself?
Throughout both books, Lucy struggles with the idea of whether our lives are fated or whether it’s our decisions that control how things turnout for us. And in the end, she kind of comes around to the idea that it’s both. Life gives us some things, and then it’s up to us to decide what we do with those things. I think this realization helps her take responsibility for her past and take control of her future.
10.   What’s next for you?
I’m working on a new novel right now about three sisters and a big, old, family house in the Hamptons. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I think there will be a lot of secrets and a lot of family history laid bare in a way the sisters hadn’t expected.
 
Discussion Questions
 
1.        Have you ever felt intrinsically connected to someone, like Lucy felt with Gabe?
2.        Have you ever kept a secret, small or large, from most of your friends and family? If so, how did it impact those relationships? Is there anything that would make you reveal the truth?
3.        Eva is such an important confidant to Lucy, and the catalyst to her traveling to Italy learn more about the address she finds among Gabe’s things. Is there anyone in your own life that you share this type of close, influential bond with?
4.        What was your favorite scene, and why?
5.        How did you feel about Darren’s behavior as it related to Lucy’s secret? How might you react in his position?
6.        Meeting Bashir and his family is such a special moment, as Lucy gets a little piece of Gabe back from that interaction. If you have experienced loss, in what ways have the stories and experiences of other people brought a memory back to life?
7.        Do you agree with Lucy’s choice to keep Samuel’s parentage a secret? Do you agree with her choice to reveal it when and how she does? Why or why not? 
8.        The connection between Lucy and Gabe always seems to come back to Shakespeare in some way, perhaps because they first met in a Shakespeare seminar in college. What is it about literature that is both so binding and lasting? 
9.        Have you ever made a choice that went against your typical decision making, like Lucy did in attempting to open her heart to Dax? What did that choice look like for you, and in what ways do you think it changed your outcome?
10.   What did you think of the ending? Are there any questions you wish you had the answers to?