Ramzan betrays his friends to protect himself and his father. Why do you think Ramzan makes this decision? Is it possible to understand or sympathize with Ramzan?

Marra opens the novel with an epigraph from Leo Tolstoy’s Hadji Murád: “It was of this death that I was reminded by the crushed thistle in the midst of the plowed field.” Why do you think Marra chose this epigraph? What does it mean in the context of the novel?

The novel’s title comes from a dictionary definition of “life” circled by Natasha: “Life: a constellation of vital phenomena—organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation” (184). Why do you think this title was chosen for the novel? How does this definition apply to the novel’s characters?