1) There There starts with a prologue: a nonfiction essay about the Native American experience. Similarly, there’s a nonfiction interlude on pages 134–141. Why do you think the author opened with this prologue and included the interlude? And how did it inform your reading of the novel? 2) Of the 12 central characters the novel follows, were there some storylines that you enjoyed or cared about more than the others? If so, what about those characters made their story stand out?

3) Why do you think Orange chose to tell this story from so many different perspectives? And why were some told from a first-person perspective while others were the third person? Was it ever challenging to follow so many storylines before they began to converge?

4) In an interview with Read it Forward, author Tommy Orange had this to say about the concept of home: “I love the word home because it feels good to say it when you feel it, and it can mean so many different things and places and people. Home is moveable, replaceable, and malleable. Home can mean so many different things to so many different people, but once you know what home is for you, it can’t be replaced by anything.” Does his opinion of home here align with the exploration of the meaning of home within the book? What do you think Orange is trying to say about “home” in There There?

5) How do gender roles factor in this novel? And why are there so many matriarch characters (Maggie, Maxine, and Opal, for instance)?

6) Although this has become a cliché phrase, it really does hold true for There There: the setting is a character. What role does the city of Oakland play in this story and in these characters’ lives?

7) There is a scene in the novel that references the song “There There” by Radiohead, and of course the novel is named There There as well. What connections, if any, can be made to the themes of the novel and the Radiohead song Tommy Orange references?

8) Throughout this story, all of the characters wrestle in one way or another with what it means to be Native American. What conclusions do they come to by the end of the novel? Do these characters reach similar conclusions, or do they all seem to have very different conceptions of their identities as Native Americans in the end?

9) In what ways is violence an important theme in this story, and what is Tommy Orange trying to say about violence? How did you feel about the violence at the end of the story when the characters converge at the pow wow? What was the purpose of having everyone’s story culminate in this way?