Key themes
- The agreement that structures love — and whether it can hold
- Writing and the ethics of using another person's life as material
- Secrets and self-made obstacles — and what they protect
About this book
On the day Fallon is moving from Los Angeles to New York, she meets Ben in a restaurant — and they agree to meet every November 9th for five years, with no contact in between, to see if what they feel survives the distance and the passage of time. Hoover's novel about love, fate and the stories people tell themselves is one of her most structurally inventive.
Published in 2015, November 9 became one of Hoover's most celebrated novels after the BookTok surge of 2022 brought her entire backlist to new readers. It deals with themes of fire, scars and the ethics of appropriating another person's pain.
Discussion questions
- Ben and Fallon agree to meet every November 9 for five years. How does Hoover develop the tension between this structured arrangement and the feelings that exceed it?
- Ben is a writer, and what he is writing turns out to have a complex relationship to reality. How does Hoover develop this — and what is she saying about the ethics of using another person's story?
- The novel has a mid-point revelation that reframes Ben's behaviour. How does Hoover set this up — and does the revelation deepen the novel or redirect it?
- November 9 is more structurally ambitious than many of Hoover's other novels. How does the annual meeting structure work — and does it serve the emotional arc?
- Like all Hoover's novels, November 9 deals seriously with difficult subject matter within a romantic framework. How do you engage with this combination?
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