BOOK CLUB KIT
Dear Reader,
I have always loved a good icebreaker. Of course, that’s probably because I was born with an unfair advantage: I am a quadruplet, one of four girls. (No, we aren’t identical, but yes, we are best friends.) Like a freaky basketball roster where all the members share DNA along with a birthday, my sisters and I have always been a team.
By senior year, we had a new member: my boyfriend (now husband) Zack. He and I were the sort of annoying high school sweethearts who started dating and immediately knew we’d get married. We loved the same music, lived on the same street, and shared the same value of family: Zack is an identical twin. (No, his brother never dated my sisters, but yes, we are extremely worried about having octuplets.) Because Zack grew up down the road, he was the easiest addition to our quadruplet puzzle. It was wonderful how he had relationships with my sisters separate from my own. It was also sometimes frustrating, like when I lived in LA and Zack missed my FaceTimes because he was at a Manhattan bowling alley where he played in a league with my sister Maggie.
In many ways, the most defining relationships of my life feel like destiny. But like in all things, there are good sides and bad. As an attention-craving kid, I always wished that I was an only child. I hated fitting in so much that I later wrote a college essay about my childhood refusal to conform in matching sunglasses. (See adorable photo below.) Zack and I were head over heels, but every choice to double down was an active choice to ignore potential reshuffles. Our teenage hearts had us making adult decisions, quieting the inevitable wonder: What if there was someone else?
When I sat down to write my debut novel, I wanted to explore relationships like these, ones that were like magic but still came equipped with their own slight mess. How do you find your voice when you’re born in a group? What does it mean to not just fall in love, but to stay in love? And is it selfish to doubt at all?
When my mind races, I crave the beach. It’s a place to look inward, to ask big questions, chart big plans. My favorite beach is Kismet, Fire Island, a community off Long Island that’s only accessible by ferry. Zack’s parents met out there as heart-strong postgrads and have spent every summer on Fire Island since. For the past twelve years with Zack, I’ve been fortunate to witness firsthand the freedom Kismet yields. No cars are allowed, so the streets are filled solely with bicyclists and bikini-clad pedestrians, kids eating ice cream along the five-block radius from the ocean to the bay. It’s a place where time slows, where music blasts, where emotions feel their brightest, and cocktails often their strongest. In short, it’s the perfect place to set a novel.
My book Kismet is a love letter to the des tinies of my life: the unique sisterhood that shapes me, the anchoring romance that fuels me, and the beach town summers that set my heart aflame. It is my greatest hope that read ers might open these pages and see their own Kismet reflected in Fire Island, too.
The ferry awaits, Becky Chalsen
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 Kismet, Fire Island plays such an important role in the Sharp family’s lives Why do you think Kismet is so special to their family? Do you have a place that is similarly special to you and/or your family?
2. In many ways, the Sharp twins are opposites, even though they are so close. Did you find yourself relating to one sister more than the other? If you have siblings, do you recognize anything in the way that Amy and Jo seem to have defined themselves against one another?
3. “Why couldn’t we fall back in time? Why couldn’t we cast our own spell, wrap ourselves up in our favorite twinhood charms the way we always used to?” What prevented Amy and Jo from falling into their usual dynamic at the beginning of the novel? How did their relationship change over the course of the book? Does it seem like their twinhood and their connection to each other is changing as life gets more “real” or do you think they find their way back to each other in the end?
4 The book centers around two major life milestones: a wedding and the twins’ thirtieth birthday. How did the characters handle these important life events differently? How did these two celebrations shape their decisions and choices?
5. Amy views herself as caught between “ romance and realism.” What do you think is the relationship between romance and realism? Do you think the two are mutually exclusive?
6. What did you make of Amy and Ben’s relationship? How did you feel as details from Amy’s past with Emmett were revealed? What do you think are the markers of a strong and lasting relationship?
7 Amy and Ben found their happily ever after so early in life How do you think Amy feels about that? Do you think that true love can ever be taken for granted as lasting a lifetime, or does it take frequent recommitment to keep a relationship strong?
8 Jo goes with the flow, while Amy is a woman of careful organization How does Amy handle the emotions when suddenly things start going off the rails, and stop running in line with her five-year plan?
9. There were many secrets revealed throughout the course of the novel. Were there any moments in the book that surprised you? How did you feel about the ending?