In the opening scene in the rural community of Feathertown, Tennessee, 29-year-old Dellarobia Turnbow is headed for a secluded mountain cabin to meet a man and initiate what she expects will be a self-destructive affair. But the tryst never happens. Instead, she walks into something on the mountainside she cannot explain or understand: a forested valley filled with silent red fire that appears to her a miracle. The arrival of a research team led by Ovid Byron reveals the troubling truth behind the butterflies' presence, that they've been driven by pollution from their usual Mexican rywinter grounds and now face extinction due to northern hemisphere temperatures. Already restless in her marriage to the passive Cub, for whom she gave up college when she became pregnant at 17, unsophisticated, cigarette-addicted Dellarobia takes a mammoth leap when she starts working with the research team. As her horizons expand, she faces a choice between the status quo and, perhaps, personal fulfillment.Author's website
Videos ~ butterflies, interview, etc.
Mary/Zorro's links about monarchs
Monarch in San Antonio
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Male or female question
FB ~ first set of questions
FB ~ Ch. 3 Congregational Space
FB ~ Ch. 4 ~ Mexico
FB ~ clearcutting in Michoacan
FB ~ Education
FB ~ Dellarobia's options
FB ~ climate change, science, and religion
FB ~ stereotypes, social issues, the media
FB ~ themes
FB ~ final quote and book question
