This month’s Book Club recommendation is a truly beautiful read that we think will be a perfect antidote for the January blues. Victoria Park by Gemma Reeves follows the lives of twelve people over twelve months. The focus changes each month, highlighting individual stories and creating the most intimate of settings, while the collection together creates a wider, community aware piece. The team here loves how characters wander in and out of chapters, a mention here and peek there, before stepping forward and opening your eyes to their personal story. The variety of emotions on offer, the wonderfully astute observations, the flow of life through the individual stories ensure this is a compelling and eloquent novel and we think a perfect Book Club pick. 

Here are ten questions about Victoria Park to get your thoughts flowing:

  • What part do you feel Victoria Park plays in the novel?
  • How well do you think the change of focus with each chapter works?
  • Did you feel a part of the community, how has it made you view your community since reading the book?
  • How did your thoughts and feelings change as you got to know the characters more fully in their own chapters?
  • How well do you think Gemma Reeves writes about the different generations within the novel?
  • The connections to the park weren’t always immediately obvious, how did that make you feel?
  • How did the fact that there weren’t always conclusions to the individual stories affect the way you read the book?
  • A circular path is taken from beginning to end, how did the other chapters affect your reading of the last few pages?
  • How did you feel about that ending and were you expecting it?
  • What is your one sentence summary of Victoria Park?

If you missed them, you can catch up on our previous Book Club Recommendations for each month below:

July 2020: Something to Live For by Richard Roper

August 2020: A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville

September 2020: Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan

October 2020: Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

November 2020: The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby

December 2020: Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam

If you want even more book club recommendations, browse our selection here.