Book Club Night Kit
Hunger and Thirst
Claire Fuller
Cozy night
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.
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.
Reading level: Moderate
Best for: A small, affectionate club that likes literary fiction, soft lamps, and conversations that wander
Discussion
Warm-up
- 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 & to sip
To eat
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.
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.
Playlist
Low volume, acoustic and slightly windswept. Fingerpicked guitar, close-mic'd voices, and long pauses, the sound of a kitchen at dusk.
- 01 Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
- 02 The Lakes - Taylor Swift
- 03 Hollow Talk - Choir of Young Believers
- 04 Harvest - Neil Young
- 05 Green Grow the Rushes - The Unthanks
- 06 Clair de Lune - Claude Debussy
- 07 Lay Down Your Weary Tune - Nick Drake
- 08 Mercy Street - Peter Gabriel
Trivia
- 1.What nationality is Claire Fuller? (British (English).)
- 2.What was the title of Claire Fuller's debut novel? (Our Endless Numbered Days, published in 2015.)
- 3.Which prize did that debut novel win? (The Desmond Elliott Prize, awarded for a first novel.)
- 4.Which of her novels was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021? (Unsettled Ground.)
- 5.What creative discipline did Fuller train and work in before turning to fiction? (Sculpture; she studied and worked as a sculptor before writing novels.)
- 6.At roughly what stage of life did Fuller begin writing fiction seriously? (In her forties, which makes her a well-known example of a later-starting novelist.)
- 7.Which English county does Fuller live in and frequently draw on for her rural settings? (Hampshire, in the south of England.)
- 8.What genre are her books usually shelved under? (Literary fiction, often with a quiet suspense or domestic unease running through it.)
Bookmarks
Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.
“Some appetites keep you warm. Some keep you walking.”
Hunger and Thirst
Claire Fuller
bookclubnight.com
“Pull your chair in. There is enough.”
Hunger and Thirst
Claire Fuller
bookclubnight.com
“Rain on the window, bread in your hands, and no hurry.”
Hunger and Thirst
Claire Fuller
bookclubnight.com
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: ______________________
That's a wrap
Thank you for coming
We hope the company was good and the conversation even better. Until the next chapter.