A LoveReading Star Book and Debut of the Month, Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake is a book that draws you in and lingers long in the heart.

Following the voyages of discoveries made by two siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, this powerful, moving novel crosses continents and generations to lay bare tragic secrets and longstanding ties to the Caribbean island their mother fled as a young woman, with her traditional black cake binding kin together and providing solace at exactly the right time.

Like the black cake of the title, this book is rich and multi-layered, with thought-provoking themes that make it ideal for book club discussions, so we’ve come up with a few questions to kick-start your chats.

1. What are the central themes of Black Cake? Did they shift as the novel progressed, or did you feel all its themes were firmly established from the outset?

2. “It seems to Byron that whatever kind of problem you have in the world, you can find someone to show you understanding. And times are changing.” So states Bryon near the beginning of Black Cake. Is this true? Do you agree with Byron? Is this statement borne out in the novel?

3. “Who was a man, Lin wondered, if he no longer had a place to call home? Lin knew people still saw him as a foreigner, even after he’d gone to school in the same town, run a business here, taken a wife here, and raised a child here.” What’s the significance of these lines from Eleanor’s past? Do they resonate beyond their time and setting, namely the Caribbean in the 1960s?

4. Benny “sensed that some combination of food and art in her life would help to ground her”. Why might Benny think this? Is this how things play out?

5. Benny “understood that one of the things that made you human was your willingness to deviate from script. The problem was, scripts were like battles. You had to choose when to go with them and when not to. And you had to be prepared to live with the consequences”. Do you agree that part of being human is being willing to “deviate from the script”? Do you think Benny makes the right choices about picking which scripts to deviate from? 

6. When discussing their upbringing, Benny remarks to Byron, “We had to be perfect to make up for the fact that our family was built on a colossal lie”. Do you think she’s right? Why do you think their parents’ expectations were so high? What effect did that have on both siblings’ lives? Why do you think the siblings reacted differently to these expectations? Were the siblings treated differently by their parents?

7. Benny wonders “How could Ma do this to them? How could she drop this bomb on them and them leave them to deal with it on their own?” Why do you think Eleanor did this? 

8. Eleanor states, “The world needed decent, even more than it needed brilliant, which her son also happened to be”. What does this reveal about Eleanor’s character, how she chose to raise her children, and about her decision to keep her past a secret?

9. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before? Why didn’t you ask for help? Why do we women let shame get in the way of our well-being?” Why do you think Benny didn’t ask for help from her mother? What does Eleanor mean by women letting “shame get in the way of our well-being”? Is this a recurring theme in the novel?

10. What does the novel reveal about masculinity? Discuss in relation to Byron, and to the other men in Benny and Eleanor’s lives.

11. “If we really mean to respect people in their maturity, then we must acknowledge them as fully formed individual with long histories; we must be prepared to see them as they are, to recognise that a shit is a shit, young or old.” Do you agree with Byron’s view? How did you feel about his reaction to meeting Johnny Lyncook? Why did Benny react differently?

12. To what extent do Benny and Byron change through the course of the novel?

13. Were you surprised when you learned the truth of Eleanor’s past? What did you think of the way the author revealed it? What did you think of the novel’s pacing?

14. What did you think of the ending? How did it make you feel? Were you left feeling positive for the family’s future?

Discover more great novels for your book club chats here, with more reading group questions to get your discussions going here.