16 August 2022
Beatrice Hitchman is an author and academic. Her first novel Petite Mort was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Prize and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Prize. She currently works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS
- If you could spend one day and one night in Julia and Eve’s Vienna, what would you do in that time?
- Dora (A Case Study) by Sigmund Freud bears a loose relation to the character of Ada. What do you think about the ways that the true nature of Ada’s suffering is rendered in the book and how it compares to that of the historical individual?
- Eve and Julia weather a number of storms over the course of their relationship but remain loyal to one another. What becomes the focus of their story when the possibility of lasting romantic love is no longer in question?
- If you could run away and start over again, where would you go? How have things changed between 1911 and today for people who need a fresh start?
- Frau Berndt points out that the group’s plan to rescue Elsa plays into some peoples’ worst stereotypes about queer and Jewish people, but with a benevolent aim in mind. How do the characters use their identities (perceived or real) to subvert people’s expectations of them?
- Do you believe that Isabella ever really felt anything for Ada? How much do you think she knew about Emil’s behaviour?
- How do the events of the first half of the novel prepare the reader for the second half, after the time jump?
- Was it fair for Eve and Julia to keep the identity of Elsa’s biological parents a secret from her into her adulthood?
- What do you think the metronome signifies for Max and Elsa?
- Frau Berndt thinks of the friends as all being her children. How do the characters expand and challenge the definition of a family over the course of the novel?
AUGUST 2022: ALL OF YOU EVERY SINGLE ONE
This month, we’ve chosen Beatrice Hitchman’s All Of You Every Single One for our Serpent’s Tail Book Club pick. This is an exhilarating queer love story set in early twentieth-century Vienna and has recently been longlisted for the Polair Prize for LGBTQ+ literature. Scroll down for more about this gripping novel, reading questions and to apply for a set of books for your book group.
Find more about the Serpent’s Tail Book Club and FAQs here.
ABOUT THE BOOK
An exhilarating queer love story set in early twentieth-century Vienna
‘The exquisite story of two women trying to make a life together in wartime Austria, and all the love, friendship and danger that implies’ – Sophie Ward
All of You Every Single One is an epic novel about family, freedom and how true love might survive impossible odds.
When Julia flees her unhappy marriage for the handsome tailor Eve Perret, she expects her life from now on will be a challenge, not least because the year is 1911. They leave everything behind to settle in Vienna, but their happiness is increasingly diminished by Julia’s longing for a child.
Ada Bauer’s wealthy industrialist family have sent her to Dr Freud in the hope that he can fix her mutism and do so without a scandal. But help will soon come for Ada from an unexpected quarter and change many lives irrevocably.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beatrice Hitchman is an author and academic. Her first novel Petite Mort was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Prize and the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Prize. She currently works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS
- If you could spend one day and one night in Julia and Eve’s Vienna, what would you do in that time?
- Dora (A Case Study) by Sigmund Freud bears a loose relation to the character of Ada. What do you think about the ways that the true nature of Ada’s suffering is rendered in the book and how it compares to that of the historical individual?
- Eve and Julia weather a number of storms over the course of their relationship but remain loyal to one another. What becomes the focus of their story when the possibility of lasting romantic love is no longer in question?
- If you could run away and start over again, where would you go? How have things changed between 1911 and today for people who need a fresh start?
- Frau Berndt points out that the group’s plan to rescue Elsa plays into some peoples’ worst stereotypes about queer and Jewish people, but with a benevolent aim in mind. How do the characters use their identities (perceived or real) to subvert people’s expectations of them?
- Do you believe that Isabella ever really felt anything for Ada? How much do you think she knew about Emil’s behaviour?
- How do the events of the first half of the novel prepare the reader for the second half, after the time jump?
- Was it fair for Eve and Julia to keep the identity of Elsa’s biological parents a secret from her into her adulthood?
- What do you think the metronome signifies for Max and Elsa?
- Frau Berndt thinks of the friends as all being her children. How do the characters expand and challenge the definition of a family over the course of the novel?