Escape with your reading group to the sleepy seaside town of Banksia Bay, where all of the inhabitants seem to be hiding something.
Steady yourself for mysteries and secrets in this heartfelt story from Sandie Docker, the bestselling author of The Kookaburra Creek Café and The Cottage at Rosella Cove. Follow Laura, Gigi, Virginia and Lily as they untangle the lies from a chain of events in 1961 that reaches into the future...
Discussion points and questions:
- Gigi and Lily form a very strong bond, despite the differences in their upbringings. What is it that draws them together?
- What is Lily’s motivation for trying to push Todd and Gigi together?
- Gigi doesn’t tell Lily the truth about the night Richard dies. Do you understand her motivation? How would life have been different for Gigi and Lily and Costas if she had?
- Yvonne shows incredible loyalty to Virginia. Where does this loyalty come from? Is it justified?
- How does prejudice influence the events in The Banksia Bay Beach Shack and the characters’ behaviour?
- Discuss the ways in which the events of the novel are indicative of the era. How might things play out differently today?
- ‘Where there’s breath, there’s hope.’ Discuss the importance of hope for both Gigi and Heath.
- Laura applies her rules of journalism to her time in Banksia Bay. Do you think the rules help or hinder her in her search for the truth?
- Heath is worried his condition will change the way Laura feels about him. Is it ever right to keep something from someone you care about?
- ‘Maybe the truth wasn’t just the first casualty of war. Perhaps it was the first casualty of life.’ What does this statement mean?
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