A Possible Life Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Sebastian Faulks's French Connection and our BookBrowse Review of A Possible Life.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How was Geoffrey changed after he returned home from the war? What accounted for this change? How was he changed in the very end of his story? What is meant by his feeling that a "rearrangement of particles had taken place within him?" Are we able to change the basic structure of who we are?
   


2. Billy is able to change his circumstances and achieve success through sheer work and determination, yet life has a way of confounding some of his plans. He says, "the more I live, the less I seem to understand." How does his worldview evolve throughout his life? Is life something that can be fully grasped or understood at any single point in our lives?
   


3. What do you think determines how and why we become the people that we do? Do you think that our lives are dictated by fate, or is it the choices we make that change the course of our lives? What are some examples from the lives in these five stories that support your belief?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Picador. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.