Sweet Pea
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did you find yourself slowing down on purpose to stay with Paulette a bit longer?
Before we go anywhere near the story: what is the first object you would pack if you had to move countries as a child, and what would it have meant to you?
The book sits with the idea of an ordinary life being quietly full. Whose ordinary life in your own family deserves a novel, and what would the opening page be about?
Paulette's arrival in England as a young girl threads through everything after. What did reading that displacement stir up in you, whether from your own life or from someone you love?
Kit de Waal writes tenderness in very small gestures. Which small gesture in this book landed softest for you, the kind you had to put the book down for a second over?
This is a book about being looked after and about looking after others. When were you most comforted while reading it, and when did it ache a bit instead?
Bernardine Evaristo called this compassionate and devastating at once. Where did you feel those two things arrive together for you, and did you find the book ultimately gentle with Paulette?
Without giving anything away, did this book leave you wanting to say something to someone in your own life? What is it, and have you said it?