Skip to content

'French Braid' Reading Group Guide

THE MAJOR NEW NOVEL FROM ONE OF THE GREATEST STORYTELLERS OF OUR TIME

French Braid is a brilliantly perceptive, painfully true and funny journey deep into one family’s foibles, from the 1950s right up to the changed world of today

When the kids are grown and Mercy Garrett gradually moves herself out of the family home, everyone is determined not to notice.

Over at her studio, she wants space and silence. She won’t allow any family clutter. Not even their cat, Desmond.

Yet it is a clutter of untidy moments that forms the Garretts’ family life over the decades, whether that’s a painstaking Easter lunch or giving a child a ride, a fateful train journey or an unexpected homecoming.

And it all begins in 1959, with a family holiday to a cabin by a lake. It’s the only one the Garretts will ever take, but its effects will ripple through the generations.

Download our reading group guide, featuring book club questions and a Q&A with Anne Tyler to enjoy with your reading group.

News

Book clubs – Get Ready to Connect!

The Book Club Hub, formerly known as Reading Groups for Everyone, is packed with amazing features to keep you and your fellow readers connected — not just within your club, but with the entire Book Club Hub community. Find out how to have members join your online book club.

Resources

Book Club Hub - Book Club User Guide

The Book Club Hub is a platform connecting readers and book clubs of all ages across the UK. It is managed by national reading charity, The Reading Agency. The Book Club Hub offers book club leaders access to free offers from publishers and prizes in return for reviews, gives them the chance to read the latest books and author news to help them pick their next read, and allows them to download resources to use with their club. Readers can also share reviews of the books they have read and...

News

Xtraordinary People by Kate Griggs Giveaway

We are delighted to offer 10 copies of #XtraordinaryPeople by kategriggs_dyslexicthinking from our friends over at DKBooks for readers!

View our other programmes