Questions for Discussion
Was The Midnight News what you were expecting from the cover or blurb? Did you find the mystery, love story or historical elements more interesting? Which genre would you describe it as?
Did you find Charlotte a likeable protagonist? How do you think she changes as a character due to the events of the novel? How might your opinion of Charlotte have been different if Jo Baker had used first person narration?
Reread the book’s epigraph: ‘…the wicked had stayed, and the good had gone…” (Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day). How does it relate to the themes and events of the novel?
Charlotte experiences all kinds of loss, grieving not only for her friends but for the life she knew before the war. How does the novel explore these themes? Do you agree with how Charlotte tries to process her grief, even with her unusual circumstances?
“‘These remembrances,’ Janet says. ‘They do matter. They come to mean so much to those of us who are left behind.’ ‘They do,’ Charlotte says. That’s about as much as she’s prepared to admit,” (page 65*). What role does memory play in the novel, and how does it help Charlotte stay connected to everything and everyone she’s lost?
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