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Maybe Next Time
One Day meets Groundhog Day, in this heartwarming and emotionally poignant novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to spare her husband from an unfortunate fate.
It is an ordinary Monday and harried London literary agent Emma is flying out of the door as usual. Preoccupied with work and her ever growing to-do list, she fails to notice her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. Even the dog seems sad.
She is far too busy, buried deep in her phone; social media alerts pinging; clients messaging with “emergencies”; keeping track of a dozen WhatsApp groups about the kids’ sports, school, playdates, all of it. Her whole day is frantic—what else is new—and as she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out, desolate, dragging their poor dog around the block. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary and she has forgotten, again, she hears the screech of brakes.
Dan is dead.
The next day Emma wakes up… and Dan is alive. And it’s Monday again.
And again.
And again.
Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up: leaving WhatsApp, telling her boss where to get off, writing to Dan, listening to her kids, reaching out to forgotten friends, getting drunk and buying out Prada. But will Emma have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children, love her husband? Will this be enough to change the fate they seem destined for?
A moving “What if” story of what it is to be a woman in the modern world—never feeling we’re getting it quite right—about learning to slow down and appreciate life that is sure to resonate with women’s fiction readers.
These book club discussion questions were provided by Harper Collins.
Book club questions for Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
Was there a particular character in this book you could relate to and why?
Do you think Emma’s experience of the juggle of her life was believable?
All the stats show that in the U.S., despite women making up 50% of the workforce, they still consistently take on the majority of unpaid work at home. COVID exacerbated these facts–do you think we could do more to address this as a society?
Do you think people in Emma’s life could have done more to reduce the pressures on her time?
Why do you think it took this event to get Emma to reflect on how she spends her time?
Would you want to experience a “Groundhog Day” yourself? And if so, which day would you choose to repeat?
Do you believe in fate? Do you think we can do anything to fight the inevitable?
This is also a story about friendship and how, when life gets in the way, we can neglect those relationships–is there someone you wish you could reconnect with in your own life?
Did you like the ending? How did you interpret it?
Has the book made you reflect on any changes you’d like to make in your own life?
Maybe Next Time Book Club Questions PDF
Click here for a printable PDF of the Maybe Next Time discussion questions