Book Club Q & A

Sadly, Spider Man couldn’t find a book club that had no arachnophobes . . .

As a member of a local book club myself, I know how satisfying it can be to get together after the monthly read to share opinions, thoughts and (possibly my favourite part!) digressions prompted by the book’s themes, characters and situations.

If you’re reading Happy Families or Love Letters for book club, here are some questions to get the conversation started. They work for solo readers who want to consider things further too!

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦        The novel is, above all things, about family. What do you think the book tells us about families, and how has the author created a family on the page that everyone can relate to?

👩‍👧‍👦        When George and Martha first arrive in the UK they feel like outsiders. Discuss the novel’s view of ‘fitting in’ (or not!).

👩‍👩‍👧‍👦        There are secrets at the heart of the family’s complex history and a motto of ‘If in doubt, change the subject’. How do the family relationships change when past secrets come to light?

👨‍👦        Discuss what brings Amy back to the family home and business, and how – by the end of the novel – she has moved forward with her life.

 ♥️            When she’s not feeling like a lonely outsider who’s been left out of everything, Asta prefers to share her secrets with Elaine and Josh rather than with her parents. Do you know any teenagers who are like that? Were you ever a teenager who behaved in that way? Are you one of those teenagers right now?

👩🏻‍🎓            Ela moves to London to do her teacher training and it is only Charlie that brings her back to Cawsmenyn after graduation. In one of her letters, she considers the difference between anonymous city life and a more rural life where everyone knows everybody else’s business. Do you have experience of either or both these environments? Which is ‘better’?

🤫            Asta’s instinct is to remain silent rather than blurt things out which serves her well when it comes to keeping Sophie’s pregnancy test a secret. Are there times when it’s better to keep schtum or should she follow Ela’s advice that a problem shared is a problem halved?

🖋️            Asta wants to make a career out of her hand-drawn calligraphy. She is fascinated by the paper and ink of Charlie and Ela’s correspondence and wonders what historians and genealogists of the future will cope when their history is all online. What do you think?