Mary Russel: Children of God

14. There were extraordinarily important children born because Emilio was on Rakhat, including Isaac, Ha’anala and Rukuei. So, whether it’s Providence or dumb luck, Emilio was the catalyst for everything that happened on Rakhat in the generations that followed the first Jesuit mission. Do you think Emilio realizes this? Does this make the suffering he lived through worthwhile?

15. What do you think of Danny Iron Horse’s plan to save the Jana’ata by establishing reservations? Do you think Danny’s plan will work in the long run or will it be as disastrous as America’s reservation system was for Native Americans?

16. Sandoz faces a dilemma at the end of The Sparrow. If he accepts the spiritual beauty and the religious rapture he experienced as real and true, then all the rest of it—the violence, the deaths, the maiming, the assaults, the humiliations—all that was God’s will, too. Either God is vicious—deliberately causing evil or at least allowing it to happen—or Sandoz has been deluded. What do you think of the way Russell handled this dilemma in Children of God? What is the place of evil and pain in a world ruled by a benevolent God?

17. Isaac composes a song based on the DNA for humans, Jana’ata, and Runa. He says it is God’s music. What do you think he means by that?

MARY DORIA RUSSELL is the author of the novels The Sparrow and A Thread of Grace. She is trained as a paleoanthropologist and has written scientific articles on subjects ranging from bone biology to cannibalism. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband and their son.