The Nightingale Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Round-up at Vélodrome d'Hiver and our BookBrowse Review of The Nightingale.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The Nightingale opens with an intriguing statement that lays out one of the major themes of the book: "If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are." What do you think the narrator means by this? Is love the ideal and war the reality? How does war change the way these characters love? How does love influence their actions in the war? On a personal level, has love affected your life choices? Have those choices affected who and how you love?
   


2. Take a moment to talk about the narrative structure of The Nightingale . Why do you think Kristin Hannah chose to keep the narrator's identity a secret in the beginning and end of the novel? Were you surprised by who it turned out to be? Did you go back and reread the beginning of the novel once you finished? Were you satisfied when you discovered who was narrating the novel?
   


3. Many characters chose to construct a secret identity in The Nightingale . How did pretending to be someone else determine each character's fate, for better or worse? And what about those who had no choice, like Ari and Julien?
   

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