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Book Club Night Kit
Ruins, Child

Ruins, Child

Giada Scodellaro
Cozy night

A slim, lyrical book from Giada Scodellaro that rewards slow, attentive reading and leaves you holding images rather than plot points. At 176 pages it is an easy evening to finish and an endless evening to talk about.

Soft Lamps, Short Book, Warm Pot on the Stove

We are reading Giada Scodellaro's Ruins, Child (176 pages, so no excuses) and then sitting around eating rice cake about it. Bring socks, bring one sentence you loved, bring nothing else.

Reading level: Moderate Pages: 176

Best for: A club that likes atmosphere over plot and does not mind saying 'I am not sure what happened, but I felt it.'

Discussion

Warm-up

  1. 1.Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did the place you were in change how it landed? Couch, bus, bath, kitchen table?
  2. 2.This is a short book with a lot of white space. Did you read it in one sitting or stretch it out, and which choice do you think treated you better?

Digging in

  1. 1.The title puts ruins and a child in the same breath. What image from the book made you feel most tenderly toward something broken?
  2. 2.Scodellaro writes in fragments rather than a tidy throughline. Did that feel restful to you or restless, and what in your own life does that rhythm remind you of?
  3. 3.Was there a sentence you had to stop and reread, not because it confused you but because it was nice in there? Read it to us if you flagged it.
  4. 4.The book keeps returning to bodies, objects, and small physical details. Which one stayed with you after you closed the book, and did it comfort you or unsettle you?

Going deep

  1. 1.Books about ruin can feel cold or can feel held. Where did this one land for you overall, and was there a moment where it decided that for you?
  2. 2.If you could keep one feeling from this book and carry it around like a warm stone in your pocket, what would it be, and who in your life would you want to hand it to?

On the table & to sip

To eat

A big pan of torta di riso (rice cake), cut into squares
Scodellaro is an Italian-born writer, and this homey, barely sweet rice cake is grandmother food: soft, plain, and quietly comforting, the way the book's small domestic details are.
Bread, good olive oil, flaky salt, and a dish of soft cheese
Nothing to cook. Tear and dip. The book is made of fragments, so a table of things you break apart with your hands suits it perfectly.
Slow-roasted tomatoes and white beans with rosemary, served warm from the pot
Ruin and repair on a plate: tomatoes collapsed into something sweeter than they started. Make it in the morning, reheat before people arrive.

To sip

Warm honey and lemon with a sprig of thyme (non-alcoholic) (no alcohol)
The house drink of being taken care of. Keep a pot low on the stove and let people refill themselves.
Vin brule (Italian mulled wine) with orange peel and clove
A cozy Italian winter standby. The smell doing half the hosting work for you.
Amaro over one ice cube, poured small
Bittersweet, herbal, a little melancholy. For the last half hour when the conversation gets quiet and good.

Run of show

7:00
Door open, nobody rushed
Drinks out, music low, food already warm. Let the first twenty minutes be pure arrival and shoe removal.
7:20
Plates and warm-ups
Everyone eats first. Run the two warm-up questions while people are chewing. No notebooks yet.
7:45
Read-aloud round
Go around and have each person read one flagged sentence out loud, no commentary required. This sets the tone better than any question.
8:00
Theme questions
Work through the four theme questions loosely. Skip any that is not catching. Silence is allowed and often productive with this book.
8:40
Refill and go deep
Pour the amaro or more honey-lemon, dim a lamp, then take the two deep questions slowly.
9:10
Scorecards and leftovers
Fill out scorecards while packing people food to take home. End before anyone wants to.

Host tips

  • Tell people in advance that it is fine to not fully 'get' this book. Say it again at the start. It unlocks the whole night.
  • Hand out sticky flags with the invite so everyone arrives with at least one sentence marked. It guarantees participation from the quiet ones.
  • Keep the food in one place and the seating soft and circular. If someone has to sit upright at a table, the conversation goes formal fast.

Playlist

Soft, spacious, mostly instrumental. Piano with the pedal down, tape hiss, a voice in another room.

  1. 01 Avril 14th - Aphex Twin
  2. 02 Una Mattina - Ludovico Einaudi
  3. 03 Lontano - Alessandro Alessandroni
  4. 04 Nuvole Bianche Variation (Piano) - Olafur Arnalds
  5. 05 Re: Stacks - Bon Iver
  6. 06 Light of the Seven Mysteries - Hania Rani
  7. 07 The Branch - Nils Frahm
  8. 08 Dove Sei - Mina

Trivia

  1. 1.Who wrote Ruins, Child? (Giada Scodellaro.)
  2. 2.Roughly how long is the book? (About 176 pages, a true one-sitting read.)
  3. 3.What year was Ruins, Child published? (2026.)
  4. 4.Scodellaro was born in which country? (Italy. She was born in Naples and later moved to the United States.)
  5. 5.What was the title of Scodellaro's earlier story collection? (Some of Them Will Carry Me.)
  6. 6.Which press published Some of Them Will Carry Me? (Dorothy, a publishing project.)
  7. 7.Scodellaro's work is best known for which stylistic quality? (Fragmentary, image-driven, lyrical prose that sits closer to poetry than to conventional plot.)
  8. 8.The book's title pairs which two words? ('Ruins' and 'Child', setting decay and youth side by side.)

Bookmarks

Print, cut, and tuck one at every seat, a small keepsake from the night.

Ruins, Child

“Keep the broken thing. Keep it somewhere warm.”

Ruins, Child
Giada Scodellaro
bookclubnight.com
Ruins, Child

“Read it slowly. The white space is doing something.”

Ruins, Child
Giada Scodellaro
bookclubnight.com
Ruins, Child

“Small rooms, long memory, a kettle on all evening.”

Ruins, Child
Giada Scodellaro
bookclubnight.com

Rate the book

Comfort level (did it hold you or hold you at arm's length?)☆☆☆☆☆
Sentences☆☆☆☆☆
Images that stuck☆☆☆☆☆
Reread-ability on a cold night☆☆☆☆☆
Would I press this into a friend's hands?☆☆☆☆☆
One word for how this book left me feeling: ______________________
The sentence I folded the corner on: ______________________
Who I am lending my copy to: ______________________
That's a wrap
Thank you for coming

We hope the company was good and the conversation even better. Until the next chapter.