Young Jane Young

From the author of the international bestseller The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry comes another novel that will have everyone talking.

Aviva Grossman, an ambitious congressional intern in Florida, makes the mistake of having an affair with her boss -and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the beloved congressman doesn't take the fall. But Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins: slut-shamed, she becomes a late-night talk show punch line, anathema to politics.

She sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine. This time, she tries to be smarter about her life and strives to raise her daughter, Ruby, to be strong and confident. But when, at the urging of others, Aviva decides to run for public office herself, that long-ago mistake trails her via the Internet and catches up-an inescapable scarlet A. In the digital age, the past is never, ever, truly past. And it's only a matter of time until Ruby finds out who her mother was and is forced to reconcile that person with the one she knows.

Young Jane Young is a smart, funny, and moving novel about what it means to be a woman of any age, and captures not just the mood of our recent highly charged political season, but also the double standards alive and well in every aspect of life for women.

1. Young Jane Young, of course, is inspired by the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. How much do you remember about that ordeal - if you lived through it as an adult. If you were too young, what have you gleaned about it over the years, what has been passed down to you? You might start off your discussion by watching the Monica Lewinsky TED talk.

2. Follow-up to Question 1: What are the parallels between this novel and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal?

3. How much does the power factor play into the Aviva/Levin: an older, more experienced male and a younger woman who is his subordinate? Should that be a consideration in blaming or absolving Aviva?

4. How would you describe the scandal that follows Aviva's affair with Levin? Why is the fallout always much greater for the woman than for the man, even though, in this case (as in so many), he's the married party? What does the unequal treatment suggest about society's mores?

5. Of the four women's sections, which do you engage with the most? Talk about how each section twists and turns the event, viewing it from a different angle. Consider Aviva's mother and, especially the Congressman's wife. How does each woman see the affaur?

6. What do you make of Ruby? Do you find her reaction to her mother's past understandable...or unbelievable?

7. What do you make of the "choose you own adventure" section? 8. Can a woman choose not to be shamed by all the "slut-shaming"

9. Does the digital age make public outrage more vitriolic today than it did back, say, 20-30 years ago? Consider that the Clinton-Lewinsky imbroglio created a media frenzy absent Twitter, smart phones, and Facebook.