Book club questions for literary fiction that start a real conversation

The worst book club question I ever heard was "What was the name of the narrator's sister?" Someone knew. Everyone else flipped pages. Then there was a silence that lasted until the host moved on to the next question, which was nearly as bad.

Questions like that come from a good place. The host wants to be sure people read the book. But a book group is not an exam, and a question with one right answer ends the conversation the moment someone gives it. The questions that work are the ones where two careful readers can disagree, and both point to the page to prove it. My own test is simple: a good question should make at least one person in the room change their mind before the evening is over.

Here is how I write them.

Start with what the book made you feel, then ask why

Before writing anything, I jot down the two or three moments in the novel where I reacted strongly: anger at a character, a laugh I did not expect, a page I had to put down. Those moments are where the conversation already lives. The question just has to point at them without telling people what to think.

"Did you find the ending sad?" is a weak question, because the answer is yes or no. "The ending made some readers angry and others relieved. Which were you, and what in the last chapter did it?" is much stronger. It admits there is more than one reaction, and it asks for evidence.

Five kinds of question that open things up

Most good questions for literary fiction fall into one of five families. A balanced list for one meeting takes something from each.

1. Character choice

Novels are made of decisions. Ask about the moment a character chose one thing over another, and whether the reader would have done the same. The richest choices are the ones the book does not judge for you.

2. Structure

How is the book built? Who tells it, in what order, and what would be lost if it were told differently? Readers often feel structure without naming it. A question about structure helps them name it, and usually leads to the best part of the evening.

3. The ending

Every group wants to talk about the ending, and many wait too long to do it. Ask whether the ending felt earned, whether it changed the meaning of earlier chapters, and what the last image leaves in the reader's head. Our piece on how great novels end offers seven kinds of last page, which is a handy vocabulary for this part of the night.

4. The title

Titles are small, and authors fight over them. Asking what a title means, and whether it means something different by the last page, is a quick way to get people thinking about the book as a whole.

5. What the book leaves out

This is the family most hosts forget. What does the novel refuse to show you? Whose point of view is missing? What happens offstage, between chapters, after the last page? Silences in a novel are often deliberate, and readers who notice them tend to notice everything else too.

Eighteen questions that fit almost any literary novel

Copy these, then adapt them. The brackets are for names and details from the book you are reading.

1. Which character did you trust most at the start, and did that change? Where?
2. Pick a decision a character makes that you disagreed with. Can you make the best possible case for it?
3. Who is telling this story, and what do they gain by telling it this way?
4. Is there a character who sees more clearly than the narrator? What do they see?
5. The novel moves through time in a particular way (in order, backward, in jumps). Why do you think the author chose that order?
6. If you had to cut one chapter, which would it be, and what would the book lose?
7. Find a scene that is mostly about place: a room, a street, a field or a coast. What is the place doing for the story?
8. What does [the title] mean on the first page, and what does it mean on the last?
9. Which line or passage would you read aloud to someone who has not read the book, to persuade them to start it?
10. What does the book leave out that you expected it to show? Why might it stay silent there?
11. Whose voice is missing from this novel? How would the story change if we heard from them?
12. Is there a moment where your sympathy shifted from one character to another? What caused it?
13. What does this book think about money, work or class, even if it never says so directly?
14. How does the book treat time passing? Are there years skipped, and what happened in them?
15. Did the ending feel earned? Which earlier scene set it up?
16. What do you think happens to [a character] after the last page?
17. Is this a hopeful book? Point to the page that convinced you either way.
18. If you met the author, what one question would you ask about how the book was made?

Two notes on using this list. First, do not ask all eighteen. Five or six is plenty for a two-hour evening, and a good question can easily fill half an hour. Second, the generic version is only a starting point. "Who is telling this story?" becomes far sharper when you name the narrator and quote one of their sentences.

A worked example: six questions for Never Let Me Go

To show the adaptation step, here is a set for Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005), a novel many groups have read since it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is narrated by Kathy H., who is thirty-one and has worked for years as a "carer," looking back on her childhood at Hailsham, an isolated English boarding school, and on her friendships with Ruth and Tommy.

Spoilers for the whole of Never Let Me Go, including its ending, follow.

1. Character choice. Ruth keeps Kathy and Tommy apart for years, then near the end of her life gives them Madame's address and urges them to ask for a deferral. Is that an apology, an act of control, or both? Did it change how you felt about her earlier cruelty?
2. Structure. Kathy tells the story in a calm, digressive voice, often promising to come back to something later. How did that manner of telling affect the way you took in the truth about the students? Would the book be more or less painful told in strict order by a narrator who explained everything at once?
3. The ending. The rumor of deferrals turns out to be false, and after Tommy's death Kathy drives to Norfolk and stands by a fence where litter has blown and caught. What does that last image hold for her, and for you? Did the book's refusal of rebellion frustrate you or feel truthful?
4. The title. The phrase comes from a song on a cassette Kathy treasures as a girl, and Madame weeps watching her dance to it. What does the title mean in that scene, and what does it mean by the final page?
5. What the book leaves out. We never see the people who receive the donations, and almost never see the wider society that allows the system. Why do you think Ishiguro keeps them offstage? What would the novel lose if he showed them?
6. Your own position. Miss Emily tells Kathy and Tommy that Hailsham was a kinder alternative to how others like them were raised. Was it? Did the guardians do the students good or harm by protecting them from the truth for so long?

Notice that every one of these questions has at least two defensible answers. Question 6 tends to split rooms right down the middle, which is exactly what you want.

If you would like a model of a full guide built this way, our reader's guide to Salvatore Scibona's The End ends with ten discussion questions for that novel. They cover a structure that leaves its first main character for most of the book, a title with several possible meanings, and the money that runs quietly underneath a whole neighborhood. You can see the five families above at work in them.

Questions to avoid

A few patterns kill a conversation reliably.

• Recall questions. "What year does the story begin?" If it matters, say it yourself and ask what it means.
• Questions with the answer built in. "How does the author show that grief is universal?" assumes the book agrees with you.
• Questions about the author's life before the book. Biography can help late in the evening, but starting there turns the novel into a puzzle about someone else.
• Questions that require a literature degree. Nobody should need the word "free indirect style" to join in. Ask "Whose thoughts are we hearing in this paragraph?" instead.

Tips for the host

The host's job is less about questions than about the room.

1. Send two or three questions ahead of time. People who have had a few days to think arrive with better answers and bring page numbers.
2. Start with a round. Ask everyone for one sentence: a word for the book, or the moment they remember best. It gets the quiet members talking in the first five minutes, before the confident ones fill the air.
3. Agree on spoilers before you begin. If some members have not finished, decide whether to discuss the ending at the end of the evening or at a later meeting. My earlier piece on reading the last page first has a few rules groups can borrow.
4. Ask people to point to the page. "Where did you get that?" is the most useful sentence a host can say. It is never an accusation. It turns opinions into readings.
5. Let silence sit for ten seconds. Most hosts rush to rephrase. Give the room a moment and someone usually fills it with something better than your follow-up.
6. Follow the argument, not the list. If question two starts a real disagreement, skip question three. The list is there to start talk, not to be completed.
7. End with a question that looks outward. "Who would you give this book to?" or "What should we read next because of it?" sends people home still thinking.

Questions readers ask

How many questions should one meeting have?

Prepare eight or so, expect to use four or five. A good question can run thirty minutes. Having spares means you can drop the ones that fall flat without panic.

Should we use the publisher's reading guide?

Use it as raw material. Publisher guides are often fine, but many lean toward recall or toward questions with the answer built in. Pick the two or three best and rewrite the rest using the five families above.

What if nobody has finished the book?

Move the ending questions to the next meeting and spend this one on character and structure, which can be discussed from the first half. Then make the second meeting short and focused on the last chapters.

How do we stop one person from dominating?

The opening round helps, and so does asking a question to a named person who has not spoken yet, kindly and with a page number in hand: "Priya, you mentioned this scene last time. What did you make of it?" Most talkative members do not mind once the pattern is clear.

More guides and question sets for modern novels are on our reading guides shelf. Take any set there, run it through the five families, and cut whatever has only one right answer.