Study Guide for Book Club Discussions - Ever Rest (Books with Friends)

Looking for your next satisfying book discussion with friends or your reading group?
This guide is written without spoilers. Read it as a warm-up for the actual text, or use it to refresh your memory and jump-start your discussions with your book group and book-loving friends.
In this guide, you can:
Explore the author’s own thoughts and intentions for the book - and decide how they match up with your own.
Discover the themes that emerged for other readers - and decide whether you agree.
Discover the books that inspired the author’s treatment of settings and characters. Consider whether you also see those influences and perhaps explore those titles too.
You’ll also find a suggested list of thought-provoking discussion questions that arise from the characters’ dilemmas and the novel’s concerns. Spoilers are marked so you can avoid them until you’re ready.
Ever Rest is contemporary literary fiction. It begins when a rock musician dies in an accident on Mount Everest and his body can’t be found. While the media keep the fans in a state of frenzied waiting, for decades, the people who knew him struggle to make new lives. The novel tackles themes of loss, love, friendships, grief, what we live for and the people we are reluctantly bound to. It asks questions about fame, press intrusion and the nature of creativity.
The novel is also notable for its multiple point of view perspective, which leads to rich discussions about characters’ motivations, flaws and beliefs, and what is, or is not true.
Please note: although this is an official guide, the text of the novel is not included.