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Veronica Helena Cortez

The Time of a Hug for book clubs

The Time of a Hug is a novel made for talking about: it tells a love story that isn’t allowed to exist, seen from her side and from his. Here are a few prompts for a book club evening or a library meeting.

The themes

  • Control and its opposite. Ginevra lives by method and planning; Andrea by jokes and improvisation.
  • The wrong moment. What happens when the right person turns up after life has already been settled elsewhere.
  • What goes unsaid. A story in which almost everything is left unspoken, and yet everything happens.
  • Two points of view. The same story, told from his side too.
  • The place. A city by the sea, far from home, where the rules seem different.

Discussion questions

  1. At first Ginevra can’t stand Andrea. At what point did you realise something was changing, and what gave it away?
  2. Control is Ginevra’s “armour”. What do you think it protects her from? Do you recognise yourself in that way of being in the world?
  3. How did it feel to read some parts from Andrea’s point of view? Did it change what you thought of him, or of her?
  4. Both of them have a life waiting at home. How did you feel, as readers, about “rooting” for a story that can’t exist?
  5. The seaside city and the work trips are almost a world apart. How much does the place shape what happens between them?
  6. In the novel almost everything goes unsaid. Is there a scene where you wished one of them had spoken up? And one where the silence says more than words?
  7. The book talks about “the courage not to take everything”. Is it really courage? What would you have done in their place?
  8. What does the title, The Time of a Hug, mean to you now that you’ve finished the book?

For those who have finished the book

  1. The Time of a Hug doesn’t have a classic happy ending. Did the ending console you, disappoint you, convince you? Would you change it?
  2. If you could write one more scene, what would it be, and from whose point of view?

Organising a meeting?

If your book club or library picks The Time of a Hug, write to the author from the Contact page: she’ll be glad to hear about it, and a meeting can be arranged, online too.