A Forty Year Kiss

"A story that captures the hope, grace, and joy of new love--but also the mistakes, scar tissue, and regret of past love. It's a wonder to behold, a novel capable of such breadth. This is the kind of book that makes me a better human." --Nathan Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Nix and Wellness

From the critically acclaimed author of Shotgun Lovesongs comes an exquisitely written, small-town story about one couple's hard-won second chance at love, forty years after their divorce.

Charlie and Vivian parted ways after just four years of marriage. Too many problems, too many struggles, even though the love didn't quite die. When Charlie returns to Wisconsin forty years later, he's not sure what he'll find. He is sure of one thing -- he must try to reconnect with Vivian to pick up the broken pieces of their past. But forty years is a long time. It's forty years of other relationships, forty years of building new lives, and forty years of long-held regrets, mistakes, and painful secrets.

A brave and triumphant exploration of redemption and sunset triumph, A Forty Year Kiss is a once-in-a-lifetime love story, written with dazzling lyricism and remarkable clarity of spirit, from a celebrated author at the top of his game. It's a literary valentine that promises to be a love story for the ages.

These book club questions are from the publisher, Sourcebooks.

Book club questions for A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Have you ever considered reconnecting with old friends, romantic or otherwise? What might cause you to reach out or not?

Do you think it was presumptuous of Charlie to message Vivian after so long? Are some things more acceptable the older you get?

Was Vivian right to keep the secret of Charlie’s child from him? How would you react to a revelation like that?

In a dark moment, Vivian describes children as vampires, sucking the life from the parent. Would you consider this a harsh description? Or accurate occasionally?

When someone is entering a relationship with existing children, when is it the right time for children to meet a significant other?

Charlie and Vivian’s first marriage was fraught with troubles, leaving scars for both of them, yet Vivian is willing to look past this. How willing are you to forgive the sins of the past? Does it depend on the sin or how far in the past?

Do you dream about your loved ones? Are the dreams more often negative or positive?

Both Charlie and Melissa struggle with alcohol throughout the novel. Why is alcohol so difficult for them to break from, and how does Charlie eventually determine he has to leave it behind?

How is a relationship (romantic or platonic) different when you’re a teenager or in your twenties versus when you’re middle-aged or older?

Melissa, upon encouragement from Charlie, writes a list of “Top Five Things I Want for My Life.” If you were to create such a list, what would you put on it?

What’s it like to come from a small town and enter a city for the first time? Or the opposite: a city-dweller going to the countryside?

Can people truly change from their past selves? What might cause such a change? What might stunt any potential growth?

A Forty Year Kiss Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the A Forty Year Kiss discussion questions