15. Is the fortune-telling pig mere light relief or something more?
16. The identity of the girl is one of the driving mysteries of Once Upon a River. What were your early thoughts about who she really was, and did they alter as the story developed? What did you think of the way this question was resolved at the end?
17. The ending elaborates on the “return to life” of children apparently drowned. Did this come as a surprise to you?
Enhance Your Book Club
1. The art of oral storytelling is at the heart of Once Upon a River. It used to be central in every human society, but with the advent of literacy, and then TV and cinema, it has become rare to gather to listen to someone tell a story from memory. How about resurrecting the art by devoting part of a book club meeting to telling stories aloud?
2. Man is said to be the storytelling ape. Stories are the way people make sense of the world and their place in it. Are there stories (family stories or personal ones) that have shaped you and your sense of the world?
3. Diane Setterfield’s book The Thirteenth Tale was made into a BBC film starring Vanessa Redgrave, and Once Upon a River is to be a television series. Whom would you cast to bring the mysterious events of the Swan in Once Upon a River to life? Share your casting picks for Margot, Joe, Jonathan, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan, Rita, Daunt, Lily White, Victor, and the others with your book club.
4. Many of the settings in the book are based on real places that stand today in England: Ye Olde Swan, still a working pub; Buscot House (the model for Buscot Lodge), now owned by the National Trust and open for visits; and Kelmscott Manor, a grand house also open to visitors, are all situated along the Thames in Oxfordshire. Should you be so lucky to go, start planning your trip at www.experienceoxfordshire.org. And if you can’t go in person, how about a virtual trip down the Thames at www.thames.me.uk?
5. Learn more about author Diane Setterfield by visiting her website at www.dianesetterfield.com, or following her on Facebook.
More from the Author
Bellman & Black
The Princess and the Pea
The Thirteenth Tale
About the Author
Diane Setterfield is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale and Bellman & Black. A former academic specializing in twentieth-century French literature, she lives in Oxford, England.
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The Thirteenth Tale
Bellman & Black
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Interior design by Laura Levatino
Jacket design by Alex Merto
Jacket illustration © Two Cranes on the Edge of a Pond (W/C on paper), Indian School, (17TH Century) / Musee Guimet, Paris, France / Bridgeman images; © Swans, 2007 (Oil on Canvas), Wright, Liz (B.1950) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images
Author photograph by Susie Barker, © Diane Setterfield
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-7432-9807-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-9023-0 (ebook)
Once Upon a River Page 43
