What do you imagine or hope would happen next for each of the members of experienced this?

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2 1 Is there one character you relate to more than any other in this story? 6 What do you think kept Phoebe and George together for six years? 2 If so, why? How well do you think Francesca Hornak captures the family dynamic of a week 7 Did you empathize with the way each character reacted to Jesse s surprise arrival? Did you empathize with Jesse? 3 in quarantine over the holidays? Do you think it was better/right for Andrew to conceal his one-off infidelity 8 Is there a moral lesson that each character takes away with them at the end of the story? If so, what with Jesse s mother? Or should he have is that lesson? 4 spoken up and told Emma at the time? Why did Olivia stay away from her family for so long? Have you ever experienced the feeling of not being 9 10 What are the main themes in the story? Do you like the way the story is told from multiple points of view? 5 able to be yourself with your family? Discuss the sibling rivalry between Olivia and Phoebe. Why do you think we, as adults, fall into old roles when home with family? Have you The end is tinged with tragedy and hope. How did the ending affect you? What do you imagine or hope would happen next for each of the members of experienced this? the Birch family after the closing pages of the book?

3 A Conversation with Author of What compelled you to write SEVEN DAYS OF US? In 2014 my oldest friend went to treat Ebola in Sierra Leone, and afterwards, she and her family had to spend December in quarantine. When she told me, I couldn t stop thinking about the idea of a quarantine intensifying the familiar Christmas set-up and how that pressure cooker could make a neat start to a novel. On a more prosaic level, I found out I was pregnant soon after I began writing so after that it was a race to birth the novel before the baby. I was editing when I went into labor.

4 Which of the Birches Olivia, Phoebe, Emma or Andrew do you relate to the most? Warning: spoiler alert! On paper I m sorry to say that I m most like the bratty, blinkered Phoebe but I felt for them all in different ways. I relate to Emma as a mother and an inveterate worrier, and her impulse to uphold family traditions. And Andrew s rage at his words being edited is annoyingly familiar to me as a journalist. I found earnest Olivia s head hardest to get into, though I think we can all identify with resenting your family and wanting to be the adult you are at work, at home. Plus, we were both pregnant so we had that in common. Were any of the characters based on someone you ve met before? Not consciously! But my older brother is definitely more intrepid and aloof than me so the dynamic between the siblings has some basis in my own experience. And at university in Oxford, I met lots of men like George Marsham-Smith... I only had myself to blame, as I chose an athletic college thinking there would be less academic work, which wasn t even true. If you were forced into quarantine with your family, what would you find most challenging? Most rewarding? We practically were in quarantine last Christmas because I roped my poor family into intensively potty training my son. We barely left my parents holiday home for a week. I m ashamed to say that I struggled with my father s insistence on hoarding moldy condiments (whenever I try to bin mustard with a 2010 date stamp I get accused of being the fridge police ), and my mother s tendency to launch into very indepth conversations at breakfast. I should be mature enough to find these things endearing, but family makes you regress! The most rewarding thing about being at home is always watching my parents and my children together. Seeing your mum and dad as besotted grandparents is very special it softens everyone and breathes new life into the house. Share your funniest (or most cringeworthy) family holiday story or tradition. When my brother and I were little, we used to get so hyperactive that we were allowed to open one present under the tree on Christmas Eve. It became tradition to deliberately pick a present that was likely to be a bit rubbish so you got it out of the way and weren t disappointed on Christmas Day. We had certain relations who could be relied on to send a terrible gift some of our top Christmas Eve openings were a 1,000-piece jigsaw of baked beans, a negligee (when I was seven... ) and a huge empty box. I wasn t aware of our traditions being cringey until my husband started spending

5 Christmas with us and was slightly aghast What do you hope readers take away from that we still all make stockings for each SEVEN DAYS OF US? other when my brother and I are well into our thirties. We also persist with real candles on the tree, even though it once caught fire and my grandmother had to throw the whole thing out of the front door. That family dynamics aren t set in stone and that it s never too late for relationships to turn around. I loosely based the plot on the parable of The Prodigal Son, as I ve always been drawn to the idea of second chances. The uncommunicative Birches are in stark contrast to the novel s sunny Californian, Jesse. What is your take on the cultural differences between the U.S. and the UK is that intentional? From the start I felt Andrew s son should be foreign but English speaking, so I chose to have him from the U.S. It was only when I started to write in Jesse s voice that I realized his Californian positivity and emotional fluency was a good foil to Andrew s cynicism and the Birch family s stiff upper lip. So it wasn t deliberate, but I was probably unconsciously drawn to portraying those cultural differences as I m a natural sceptic myself (much as I d love not to be), and I really envy the enthusiasm and straightforwardness that seems to be the norm in the states. The British embarrassment threshold can be A Novel by painfully low! That said I think there s a new generation of Brits who are already more like Jesse than the Birch family because of all the motivational mottos floating around Instagram... Berkley Hardcover On Sale: October 17, 2017 ISBN: Price: $26.00

6 Holiday Icebreakers Cut out these slips of paper and stick them in a hat or bag. Take turns pulling them out and sharing your holiday stories. Share a time a holiday recipe or meal went wrong. What is the ugliest holiday sweater you ve ever seen? Share a time a family secret was revealed. Share a beloved holiday tradition. If you could eat as much of one holiday food as you like (with no regrets!) what would it be? Tell everyone the plot of your favorite holiday movie or TV special. What is the worst gift you ve ever received? What is the best gift you ve ever received? What would you put in your holiday survival kit? Sing two lines from your favorite holiday song. What do the holidays smell like to you? Would you be able to make it through a seven-day quarantine with your family? What is the name of an exotic location you would like to go to for the holiday? If you could do the past seven days over again, what would you do differently?