Pelicans and the Science of Souls
Questions for Book Club Discussions

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If you like, arrange a date for Rebecca to visit your book club for free by Zoom.

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Sample discussion questions include:

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• Rebecca begins her investigation not knowing whether to accept her experiences as evidence of an afterlife or to dismiss them as products of grief. How well did she continue entertaining both possibilities? Did your own interpretation of the events change as you read?

• What do you think we mean when we say that something is “real”? Do unexplained experiences have to be scientifically explainable to have meaning or value?

• Jerry’s scholarship on Plato and the ancient Greek soul becomes one way Rebecca tries to understand what has happened to her. Did these ancient ideas change the way you thought about death, consciousness, or the possibility of an afterlife?

• Quantum physics enters the book not as proof of survival after death, but as a reminder that reality can behave in ways that defy ordinary intuition. Did you find that idea convincing? Why or why not?

• The pelicans begin as drawings Rebecca makes to amuse Jerry while he is alive and continue after his death. How does their meaning change over the course of the book?

• Can maintaining a relationship with someone who has died be part of moving forward rather than an obstacle to it? Where do you see that happening—or not happening—in the book?

• People who are grieving sometimes report sensing, seeing, hearing, or otherwise experiencing the presence of someone who has died. How should friends and family respond when someone tells them about an experience they themselves may not believe is possible?

• Humor appears alongside profound grief throughout the book. What does humor make possible that a more solemn account of bereavement might not?

• How did the illustrations affect your experience of the story? Would this have been a substantially different book without them?

• Did the book leave you more skeptical, more open to mystery, or essentially where you began? Was there a particular moment that affected your thinking?

• If the dead continue to have feelings and specific hopes for us, what do you think a living person owes them in terms of loyalty or fealty?