The Blackout Book Club

The four women narrating the novel have very different personalities and backgrounds. Is there one you enjoyed reading more than the others? One that you grew to like more as the novel went on?

Throughout the novel, Martina faces discrimination because of her Italian background, including suspicion of espionage, which was a real threat for first-generation immigrants. Given the extremely low number of actual incidents of spying or sabotage, why do you think Americans were so quick to suspect their fellow citizens?

What do you think of the author’s choice of using notes to portray the discussions between book club members?

How many of the books discussed by the club have you personally read? Did you have strong opinions about any of them?

Putting yourself in the place of New Englanders of the time, what do you think would be the most challenging aspect of home-front living? Gas and food rations? Blackout regulations and air raids? Fear for loved ones deployed overseas? Something else?

At one point, Avis muses that the difficulty with fighting to keep the library open is that it would mean saying no to other good things—a childcare center and book donations to soldiers overseas. Did you feel that same tension? What would you have done in her position?

Several characters grow to appreciate fiction more throughout the novel. Did you identify with any of their attitudes toward books?

How much did you know about U-boats along the Atlantic coast before reading the novel? What was the most interesting historical detail you learned in the course of reading?

Do you agree with Louise that it’s possible to love a good thing, like books, too much?

Freddy tells Ginny, “We’re all passing through, in and out of this world quick as a passenger boarding a train, on the wat to something that lasts. Until then, you might as well make friends with your fellow travelers.” Have you also experienced a time when you’ve been in a place temporarily that didn’t quite feel like home? How did you handle it? What do you think will happened to Ginny and Freddy in the future?

Through glimpses into Louise’s past, we get to learn more about her relationship with her father. How did you feel about him as a character? Do you think she has an accurate view of who he was and why he acted the way he did?

Avis and Russell appear to be in a place where they are working through the issues in their marriage, something that wasn’t possible for Martina and Patrick. What would you name as the key differences between these two couples’ relationships?

When you learned the reason behind Freddy’s deception, how did you feel about it? If you had been in Ginny’s place, what advice would you have given him?

All four of the narrating women start the story exhibiting a strong independence but each for different reasons Why do you think Avis, Ginny, Louise, and Martina felt they had to handle their problems on their own? What helped them change over the course of the book?