It has been said there are three prototypical stories in the world: girl meets boy, the king is dead, a stranger comes to town. Which of these ancient stories drives the narrative in Bay Lands?

Mari often resents that she resents. What causes her resentment? Have you ever been treated badly, resented that treatment, and then been pressured to repress or “let go” of your resentment? What course of action do you recommend?

Mari’s once-beloved brother, Billy, has been away at sea for three years when the story opens. He returns an opium addict. Mari is furious with him for leaving her to handle the mess of a failing family and ranch, and for being an addict. How would you cope in these circumstances?

Mari’s grandmother was a legendary healer, landowner, and “witch” among her fellow Californios. In what ways did her legacy—her life and her will—empower and burden Mari? 

How did the women who raised Mari on her ranch—her grandmother, her mother, and Paz—influence Mari’s decisions once she became boss of the ranch? How do Mari’s decisions challenge societal norms for women of her era? For Mexican-Americans of her era?

Who really owns the land in Bay Lands?

Mari and Billy discuss the meaning of “family.” Who does Mari regard as her family at the beginning of the story? How does this view change by the end?

Mari uses the image of the “fairy rings” growing around the stumps of giant redwoods to explain life and death to Becky’s boys. How does the idea of the ever-living roots of Sequoia sempervirens inform the concepts of cultural and personal survival in the novel?

Most of us today take modern medicine for granted. In Mari’s world, antisepsis was still largely unknown, and most births were midwifed. Most healing relied on ancient knowledge of medicinal plants. Are we better off today?

Given the high mortality rates for both mothers and children, do you imagine that women viewed sexual relations differently in the 1870s than they do today? How do you suppose this riskiness affected women’s views of their own roles in the social order?

Mari’s ranch and bay lands are coveted by rich, influential men. How do they manipulate the strings of power to wrest her land from her?

Discuss the economic and societal impacts of new technologies in the 1870s—the Transcontinental Railroad, the telegraph, antisepsis, microbiotics—with more recent technological breakthroughs such as AI, cell phones, computers, and antibiotics.