Cozy night
Hunger and ThirstBook club questions, food & host guide
Claire Fuller
Picked by
Belletrist
Belletrist
A cozy book club night for Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.
A small, affectionate club that likes literary fiction, soft lamps, and conversations that wander
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A hushed, intimate story about need in its rawest forms, told in the kind of close, sensory prose that makes a quiet room feel full. It is a book that rewards slow reading and even slower talking.
Why it works for clubs
- Everyone arrives with a different read on what the characters truly needed
- The title alone opens up an hour of conversation about appetite and longing
- Sensory, atmospheric writing gives readers specific lines and images to bring
- Quiet tension means no one needs to be an expert to have an opinion
Reading level
Moderate
Warm-up questions
- 1 Tell us where you did most of your reading, and whether you had something to eat or drink in hand while you did it.
- 2 Before you opened it, what did the title 'Hunger and Thirst' make you expect, and did the actual feeling of the book match that?
Digging in
- 1 This is a book about wanting. What is something small you have genuinely craved this year, and did reading this make you feel tender toward that craving or a little embarrassed by it?
- 2 Which passage made you physically aware of your own body, hungry, thirsty, cold, or just wanting to be held? Read it out if you marked it.
- 3 Where in these pages did you find actual comfort, even a sentence's worth, and did you go back and reread it?
- 4 Claire Fuller writes places that feel like weather you live inside. Did this book's setting feel like somewhere you wanted to be, or somewhere you were relieved to close the cover on?
Going deep
- 1 Was there a moment where you wanted to step into the story and simply feed someone, or sit with them? What would you have brought them?
- 2 By the last pages, had your feeling toward the characters softened, hardened, or just gone quiet? Try to describe the feeling rather than what happened.
On the table
A warm loaf with salted butter and good honey, torn not sliced
Bread is the plainest answer to hunger, and tearing it together sets an unfussy, generous tone for the night.
Slow-cooked root vegetable and barley stew in mugs
Earthy, rural, and made hours ahead. Mugs instead of bowls so people can curl up on the sofa and still talk.
Baked apples with brown sugar and cream
Orchard-simple and nurturing, the kind of homely indulgence that suits a book preoccupied with what sustains us.
To sip
Hot spiced apple and blackberry cordial
No alcohol
Non-alcoholic, hedgerow-flavored, and served in whatever mismatched mugs you own. Keep the pot warm all evening.
Mulled cider with orange peel and a cinnamon stick
Rustic, English, and comforting. The smell doing half the hosting work before anyone sits down.
A dark, honeyed stout or a small glass of sweet sherry
A slow sipping drink for a slow book, poured in modest measures so nobody loses the thread of the conversation.
Low volume, acoustic and slightly windswept. Fingerpicked guitar, close-mic'd voices, and long pauses, the sound of a kitchen at dusk.
Tap a track to play it. Full songs play when you're signed into Spotify.
Run of show
7:00
Door open, mugs out
Stew already warm, cordial on the stove. Hand everyone a drink before they take their coat off. No agenda yet.
7:20
Bread and the two warm-ups
Pass the loaf around and let people tear a piece as they answer. Eating gives shy readers something to do with their hands.
7:45
Marked pages
Invite anyone who dog-eared or underlined something to read it aloud. Two or three lines each. This is the heart of a cozy night.
8:05
Theme questions, served slowly
Pick three of the four. Let silences sit. Nobody has to answer in order and nobody has to answer at all.
8:40
Baked apples and the deep questions
Dessert first, then the two closing questions. Sweetness makes the harder feelings easier to say out loud.
9:10
Trivia, scorecards, and lingering
Low-stakes trivia read aloud, scorecards filled in, playlist up a notch. Send people home with leftovers.
Host tips
- Overheat the room slightly and underlight it. Lamps and candles only, no overhead lights, and have a basket of blankets by the sofa.
- Say out loud at the start that nobody needs to have finished, and mean it. Then steer the first half toward feeling rather than plot so unfinished readers can stay in the conversation.
- Make the stew the day before. A host who is still cooking cannot be cozy, and this book deserves your full attention.
You're invited
Come Be Fed: A Cozy Night with Hunger and Thirst
Bring your copy, your marked pages, and your thickest socks. There will be stew in mugs, warm cider, baked apples, and absolutely no pressure to have finished.
Trivia
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1
What nationality is Claire Fuller?Answer: British (English).
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2
What was the title of Claire Fuller's debut novel?Answer: Our Endless Numbered Days, published in 2015.
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3
Which prize did that debut novel win?Answer: The Desmond Elliott Prize, awarded for a first novel.
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4
Which of her novels was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021?Answer: Unsettled Ground.
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5
What creative discipline did Fuller train and work in before turning to fiction?Answer: Sculpture; she studied and worked as a sculptor before writing novels.
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6
At roughly what stage of life did Fuller begin writing fiction seriously?Answer: In her forties, which makes her a well-known example of a later-starting novelist.
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7
Which English county does Fuller live in and frequently draw on for her rural settings?Answer: Hampshire, in the south of England.
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8
What genre are her books usually shelved under?Answer: Literary fiction, often with a quiet suspense or domestic unease running through it.
Bookmarks
Cozy night
Quiet ache
Some appetites keep you warm. Some keep you walking.
Hunger and Thirst
Cozy night
Shared table
Pull your chair in. There is enough.
Hunger and Thirst
Cozy night
Soft shelter
Rain on the window, bread in your hands, and no hurry.
Hunger and Thirst
Rate the book
Comfort found
Ache left behind
Sense of place
Sentences worth rereading
Would press into a friend's hands
One word for how this book left me feeling:
The line I marked and kept coming back to:
What I would have cooked for these characters:
Print pack
- Question cards on cream stock, tied with twine, to pass around the sofa
- Three bookmark designs printed on recycled card for guests to take home
- Half-page scorecards with a pencil tucked into each one
- A small folded menu listing the stew, the apples, and the three drinks
- A trivia sheet for the host to read aloud, answers on the reverse
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