Switzy Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

About this book

A private plane carries David, a retired executive, across Europe toward his chosen final destination: an assisted-dying clinic in Zurich. As the journey unfolds, the novel strips away the achievements, relationships, contradictions, and compromises of a life to ask what remains of a person at the end. Darkly funny and deeply felt, this is an elegiac, unexpectedly moving book about mortality, regret, and the reckoning we all eventually face.

Discussion questions

1. The novel unfolds almost entirely on a private jet carrying David toward an assisted-dying clinic. What was your first impression of that setup, and of David himself?
2. The book is inward and elegiac, built more on reflection than plot. If that stillness tested you, what held your attention?
3. As the journey strips away David's achievements and relationships, we see what is left. What did that reveal about him, and did your feelings toward him shift along the way?
4. The book sits with one of the hardest choices a person can make. Where did you land on David's decision, and did the novel change how you thought about it?
5. Cline asks what remains of a person when the life's accomplishments and compromises are peeled back. What did the book ultimately say about a life, and how we measure one?
6. The novel is darkly funny even as it faces mortality head on. How did that humor sit against the subject, and did it deepen the book for you?
7. The strange, sealed world of the private plane becomes the stage for a reckoning. How did that confined, in-between setting shape the story?
8. Did this remind you of another story about facing the end, or about reckoning with a life, in a book, a film, or your own experience?
9. The book is honest about mortality in a way few are. Without going anywhere you would rather not, did it prompt any reflection for anyone at the table?
10. Who would you hand this to next, the reader who welcomes a literary book that faces death squarely or an admirer of the author's work, and who might find it too heavy?

Themes to listen for

• Mortality faced head on
• What remains of a life at its end
• Regret, reckoning, and compromise
• Dark humor in the face of death
• How we measure a life

If your club liked this, try…

• The Girls by Emma Cline
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Where to get it

• Check availability at your local library
• Find it on Bookshop.org
• Listen on Libro.fm

Practical notes

Best for literary clubs willing to sit with hard questions about the end of life.

Content notes: Assisted dying and mortality; a sensitive, though often darkly funny, read.