READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. How did Liza and Franz’s trans-dimensional relationship evolve from their meeting at Nordstrom to their parting?

2. What is the nature of genius? (How could Mozart write music at age five that we still listen to? Why didn’t Picasso draw like a child until he grew old and chose to draw like a child?) Is it genetics, spirit, or something else?

3. What was Franz to Liza–gift, responsibility, burden, invader, guardian angel?

4. How would this story be different if Franz had inhabited a man?

5. What would Liza’s experience have been like without her family, friends, and a small inheritance to sustain her?

6. Would you like to be inhabited by somebody famous? If yes, by whom? Do you believe in such possibilities?

7. Think about the reactions of Liza’s friends/family/colleagues when they learned the truth. How would you respond if someone close to you made a similar claim?

8. Liza’s best friend was a man. How do opposite-sex friendships compare to same-sex best friends?

9. How does Franz ultimately help or hurt Liza’s relationship with Patrick and with friends and other family members?

10. Franz had a special fondness for Danny. How did they affect each other?

11. What will Liza be doing five years post-Franz? How about Danny, Mikki, Patrick, Cassie, Mom, Dad, Greta and the rest? Did life go back to normal? Is it better or worse?

12. Were you familiar with Franz Schubert’s music before reading the book? Can you imagine the music played in the end?

13. What does music add to your life? If it were taken out of your life–in movies, at home, in elevators, cars, and the supermarket–how would you change?

14. Which scenes from Sleeping with Schubert will stay with you?

15. What is your hidden, or yet-to-be-explored talent?