Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. 'Here’s to Diana. To the plurality of faiths, and the avoidance of dogma about things we can have no certain knowledge of.'
    2. How does The Rose Labyrinth examine the idea of religious tolerance, and the danger of fundamentalist beliefs in any religion? How do the religious views of the men who executed Giordano Bruno in the sixteenth century match those of the Rapturists? How does the novel challenge received wisdom about religion across several centuries?
  2. 'Cellular memory', which Lucy believes she experiences, has been neither proved nor disproved. Do you feel that it could be possible for a transplant patient to take on some attributes of their donor?
  3. The ideas behind The Rose Labyrinth are very wide-ranging, linking Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer, Chartres Cathedral, heart transplant, Shakespeare, and the politics of George Bush and Sarah Palin. Which themes stood out most strongly for you?
  4. 'May it ever be that Love’s Lost Labours can be Won?'
    5. The Rose Labyrinth can be read as a Shakespearean comedy, where three couples have to navigate a labyrinth in which their characters and emotions will develop and change. Were you struck by this aspect of the novel, and how do you feel it enriches the narrative?
  5. 'And in a moment they were looking at a cache of beautifully calligraphed riddles…'
    6. The riddles that Lucy and Alex unearth lead them through a labyrinth of secrets, myth and legend. Did you go on to solve any of the riddles that the characters did not? Did this enhance your reading of the book?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell