View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What critique does the narrator have of Nelson Denoon?

2. What objects does the narrator obsess over losing during her trip to Tsau?

3. What about Nelson Denoon fascinates the narrator?

4. How does Nelson Denoon react to the narrator's arrival in Tsau?

5. What happens at the end of Nelson's speech at the party?

Short Essay Questions

1. What drives the narrator to contact Nelson Denoon?

2. Why does the narrator stick to the story she created when she first entered Tsau?

3. Nelson leaves Tsau on retreat for four days. Why doesn't he tell the narrator why or where he is going? How does the narrator react?

4. Who is "Z" and what relationship does the narrator share with him?

5. The narrator travels across the desert to Tsau with two donkeys. How does she feel about them? Why?

6. Why does the narrator have such difficulty finding the place where Nelson Denoon is rumored to be staying?

7. How does land ownership and currency work in Tsau? What observations does the narrator make?

8. What does "intellectual love" mean in the book?

9. What feelings does the narrator have as a result of visiting Victoria Falls with Giles? Why?

10. What does the narrator discover through her thesis work in the African bush? Is it what she expected?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the story the narrator does things or feels things that she does not feel positively about. How does the author describe these situations? Choose two examples from the book and explain how and why the author describes those feelings in the narrator.

Essay Topic 2

Describe what happened to Nelson in the desert. What kind of transformation has he experienced? Is this common among survivors? What does his transformation mean for his future with the narrator and the future of Tsau?

Essay Topic 3

The reader sees increasingly Nelson Denoon's need and desire to pull away from the governing of Tsau, but he is unable to do so. Explain three examples the author gives of this dilemma. Why does this dilemma exist?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,150 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample