The Monk Downstairs: wrapping up

Thanks for reading The Monk Downstairs with me! If you liked the book, you may also like these titles:

The Monk Upstairs by Tim Farrington (yes, it’s a sequel)

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Open House by Elizabeth Berg

All Saints by Liam Callanan

Read with me in June — the book selection is David Eberhoff’s The 19th Wife!

The Monk Downstairs: Mike and the monastery

From the reader’s guide to The Monk Downstairs by Tim Farrington:

Michael Christopher initally tells Rebecca that he left the monastery because he “had a fight with his abbot.” Why do you feel he really left the monastery? What was he looking for? What did he find?

To expand on those thoughts, do you think that if Mike knew then what he knows now, he would have left the monastery sooner? And what do you think of only seeing Mike’s side of the correspondence?

The Monk Downstairs: mothers and daughters

How do the relationships between Phoebe and Rebecca, Rebecca and Mary Martha, and Phoebe and Mary Martha differ? In what ways do these relationships change over the course of the novel?