We That Are Left cover

We That Are Left

by Clare Clark

It is 1910 and to ten-year-old Oskar Grunewald, the Melville family is impossibly, incomprehensibly glamorous. Born into privilege, buttressed by inherited wealth, their certainties are as unshakeable as the walls of their Victorian castle. It is a world to which Oskar, mathematics prodigy and son of a penniless German composer, has no wish to belong. His fascination is all for physics where new scientific discoveries are, for the first time in four hundred years, challenging Newton's fundamental theories of the universe. But when Theo Melville is killed in the Great War, shattering his family's lives, Oskar finds himself drawn reluctantly into the gaping hole his death has left behind. As Theo's two sisters struggle to forge their paths in a world that no longer plays by the old rules, Oskar's life becomes entwined with theirs in ways that will change all of their futures forever.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?