Book Club Discussion Questions for The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, A Red Herring and our BookBrowse Review of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. While you were reading the novel, were you conscious of the fact that it was originally written in French?
   


2. Were Harry and Nola in love? Is true love possible between an adult in his thirties and a fifteen-year-old adolescent?
   


3. There are no explicit sex scenes between Harry and Nola in the novel. Is it possible that their relationship was unconsummated?
   


4. How well do you think Dicker captured small-town American life? Are the Quinns a typical American family?
   


5. Is Marcus a reliable narrator?
   


6. Do you agree with Marcus's ultimate decision to write a book about "The Harry Quebert Affair"? What would you have done in his position?

[Spoiler warning: Don't read ahead if you don't want to know too much!]

1. Who was Nola Kellergan: a victim, a seductress, or something else?
   


2. Elijah Stern goes to great lengths to atone for the crime he committed in his youth. Did his actions adequately compensate his victim?
   


3. Was Harry, in part, to blame for Nola's death because of the way he misled Jenny Quinn?
   


4. How did the truth about The Origin of Evil affect your opinion of Harry? Should he have publicly admitted that it was really written by someone else?
   


5. Did you suspect the identity of the true killer?
   


6. Were you satisfied that justice had been served?

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